With last week’s first Mortal Kombat trailer finally giving fans a look at some of the series’ most iconic characters, it’s tough to argue with any of the adaptation’s casting choices.
Unlike Paul W.S. Anderson’s original 1995 film, this year’s reboot boasts an infinitely greater degree of ethnic diversity, especially with regard to combatants that are known to be of Asian descent. Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, for example, takes up the mantle of Thunder God Raiden, while Scorpion and Sub-Zero, both members of ninja clans, are played by Hiroyuki Sanada and Joe Taslim respectively. It’s possible for these reasons, that director Simon McQuoid and other members of the crew decided not to include caucasian character Johnny Cage over concerns of unintentionally injecting themes of the ‘white savior’ stereotype, though such theories remain exactly that for the time being.
Cast members with Far Eastern heritage will be joined by others, of course, including Australians Josh Lawson and Jessica McNamee as Kano and Sonya Blade respectively, as well as Mechad Brooks as Jax. As for as the latter is concerned, however, artist BossLogic would like to see someone else take up the name, and you can check out their interpretation of how Terry Crews could look as the bionic-armed hero down below.
As seen in the aforementioned trailer, Jax, a special forces police officer, loses his organic arms to Sub-Zero during their first meeting after the latter freezes and shatters them into pieces. It goes without saying that his metallic replacements will come in handy during Shang Tsung’s tournament, and we can’t wait to see Brooks put his own spin on the character.
Mortal Kombat releases April 16th in theaters and on HBO Max.