All the way through the buildup and promotion for the Mortal Kombat reboot, the key members of the creative team constantly hammered home the idea that they’d deliberately sought out accomplished martial artists for the cast, to give a balance between actors that could do justice to the fight sequences just as well as the performances, which always made Josh Lawson’s Kano feel like a bit of an outlier.
Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ludi Lin, Max Huang and Nathan Jones all have extensive martial arts training and experience, while co-stars Mehcad Brooks and Jessica McNamee have appeared in several film and television projects that require stunt training. Lawson, meanwhile, is best known as a comedic presence, with his most high-profile roles prior to Mortal Kombat arguably being Anchorman 2‘s Kench Allenby and House of Lies‘ Doug Guggenheim.
That being said, it turned out to be the right decision, with the 39 year-old positively revelling in the opportunity to be the only member of the ensemble to have a little fun with the ridiculous premise and heightened fantasy world of Mortal Kombat. Everyone treats the material incredibly seriously with the exception of Kano, which sees Lawson deliver a charismatic turn that finds him coming close to stealing the entire movie. Fans clearly agree, and the character has been getting a lot of praise on social media, as evidenced below.
https://twitter.com/TonysaurusReks/status/1385983292617396225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385983292617396225%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmovieweb.com%2Fmortal-kombat-movie-josh-lawson-kano%2F
A someone who has played Mortal Kombat since 1992, I have never liked or been a fan of Kano. The Mortal Kombat movie just changed all that! Holy s@&t Josh Lawson is fantastic and f@&king hilarious! 😂👏🏼😂👏🏼😂 #MortalKombatMovie pic.twitter.com/2ajwoXqHaZ
— Mike Kalinowski (@MikeKalinowski) April 24, 2021
Kano is by far the best character in the new ‘Mortal Kombat’ movie pic.twitter.com/OJRRDct2uC
— Kate J (@katej1984) April 25, 2021
After watching #MortalKombatMovie all’s I know is that I want a Kano Black Dragon prequel spinoff film. pic.twitter.com/r2x3aL1ma9
— John A Martinez (@StorTheAnimator) April 24, 2021
https://twitter.com/banksburner25/status/1385857226858893314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385857226858893314%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmovieweb.com%2Fmortal-kombat-movie-josh-lawson-kano%2F
https://twitter.com/knowsworthy/status/1385834740800835585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385834740800835585%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmovieweb.com%2Fmortal-kombat-movie-josh-lawson-kano%2F
Evil Uno thought the new Mortal Kombat movie was a ton of fun. Kano is by far the MVP.
Thank you @AMCTheatres & @wbpictures for the private screening! #MortalKombat
— EVIL UNO of DARK ORDER (@EvilUno) April 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/BlerdNerdy/status/1385937700369305606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385937700369305606%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmovieweb.com%2Fmortal-kombat-movie-josh-lawson-kano%2F
Watched Mortal Kombat, kall it Aussie bias but Kano karried the whole movie. #MortalKombat
— Thommo (@SilkyThomson) April 24, 2021
mortal kombat was cool and somehow kano was the best part despite always being one of my least favorite characters in the games
— 𝐣𝐚𝐤𝐞 (@ghxvls) April 24, 2021
I enjoyed the new Mortal Kombat for what it was, but….
Kano was the best character in that movie, hands down.
— Lonnie Lightning (@NattyLightning) April 24, 2021
far from a Flawless Victory but WB finally has some training wheels moving forward with Mortal Kombat. It had far more entertaining moments than any DC film as of late. Kano really delivered.
— Loroko (@blackflypress) April 24, 2021
Main takeaways from the Mortal Kombat movie. Sub zero was the best fighter best fight scene Scorpio and subzero. Kano stole the show tho haha 8/10. pic.twitter.com/tWpXEDlpXa
— Migs (@iamcarlomigs) April 24, 2021
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Kano isn’t a lot of people’s favorite Mortal Kombat character on consoles, but Lawson has made sure that audiences won’t forget his wisecracking Australian redneck in a hurry, thanks to the creatively-worded insults he regularly lobs at the rest of the characters whenever he’s on the screen.