“I asked for a heavy-action content movie, and for my sins, they gave me one,” the star tells EW.

Karl Urban calls Mortal Kombat II’s Johnny Cage ‘the most challenging role’ of his career (exclusive)

"I asked for a heavy-action content movie, and for my sins, they gave me one," the star tells EW.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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December 16, 2025 10:00 a.m. ET

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(L-R) Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Josh Lawson as Kano in "Mortal Kombat 2.". Credit:

Warner Bros. Pictures

- Karl Urban opens up about playing Johnny Cage in *Mortal Kombat II* and why it was his most challenging role to date.

- The actor, as well as director Simon McQuoid, tease the big Johnny-Kitana fight sequence.

- Urban explains how *The Boys* led to *Mortal Kombat*.

In some ways, we have *The Boys* to thank for Karl Urban's role as Johnny Cage in *Mortal Kombat II* (in theaters May 8, 2026). It's because the New Zealand-born actor of *The Lord of the Rings* and *Star Trek* finished shooting season 4 of Amazon's R-rated satire in late 2022, when he oddly felt...not exhausted.

Typically, he is. Urban's character, Billy Butcher, regularly combats so-called "superheroes" with all manner of depraved tools (anally inserted pipe bombs, whale-impaling speedboats, and the like). The penultimate season was different.

"It was my *General Hospital* season," Urban jokes with **, referring to Butcher's cancer storyline. "I didn't really have much action that season.... I had fuel in the tank. I just wasn't satiated." So he called his agent to see if there were any potential action roles on the horizon. "Fortuitously," he adds, "it was about a week later, they sent me the *Mortal Kombat* script."

Urban now makes his debut in the sequel to the 2021 event film as Johnny Cage, a fan-favorite, comedy-forward character from the video games.

Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn and Ludi Lin as Liu Kang in "Mortal Kombat II".

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

"I asked for a heavy-action content movie, and for my sins, they gave me one," Urban continues. "It was the most challenging role that I've ever undertaken in my career. It's the martial arts. The form and the style of martial arts is so specific, and the choreography, at times, is so definitive in its movement, and there's a precision of execution for it to look good. It was a huge challenge."

*Mortal Kombat II* presents Cage as a washed-up Hollywood actor. A former karate student as a kid, he grew up to be a big shot in the Sylvester Stallone-, Jean-Claude Van Damme-, and Arnold Schwarzenegger-era of B-action movies, but he's now working the dried-up fan convention circuit.

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For *Uncaged Fury*, one of Johnny's past flicks, director Simon McQuoid channeled a late-'90s film aesthetic. "I didn't want it to feel like it was a parody of a parody. I wanted it to feel like this is actually footage from a film," he says. "The risk was overcooking it and having too much fun about recreating it, therefore it would lose its authenticity."

During this twilight phase of his career, Thunder God himself, Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), recruits the down-on-his-luck Johnny to join his Earthrealm champions in Mortal Kombat, a lethal tournament in which fighters from different dimensions battle to the death. His teammates include Ludi Lin's Liu Kang, Jessica McNamee's Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks' Jax, and Lewis Tan's Cole Young — all returning from the first movie.

Urban praises the team of stuntmen, choreographers, and trainers who got him battle-ready for such a role. "As part of my research, I went to karate tournaments and looked at the younger generation of martial artists coming through to see what it was like growing up in that environment, as I imagine Johnny Cage had done when he was a kid," he says.

Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, and Mehcad Brooks as Jax in "Mortal Kombat II".

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

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One particular battle plays out between Johnny and Kitana, the metal fan-wielding princess of Edenia, teased in a previous trailer for the movie. The two characters have strikingly different fighting styles, and both take up substantial real estate in the story. "He's so rusty," Urban comments of that impending face-off. "He's neglected his martial arts, he has no connectivity with what he's supposed to be doing, and he's so sloppy."

It makes for some inherent physical comedy amid such a high-stakes moment. Urban likens it to Jackie Chan's style of combat, the way the *Rush Hour* and *Karate Kid* star's fast-paced, precise martial arts moves are paired with hijinks.**

"We knew that was Johnny's first fight," McQuoid explains. "It's his first understanding of what's going on now with him. He's being dragged into this. So it was very important getting the balance right about how Johnny handles it and then how in control Katana was. Johnny couldn't be totally hopeless, but he needed to look like he wasn't match fit."

We'll see who's left standing when *Mortal Kombat II* hits theaters next year.

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