Mortal Kombat's iconic Kano has been with the franchise since the first Midway arcade game was released in 1992. With a metal plate covering part of his face and a red eye that shoots laser beams, he is instantly recognizable, and he's well known for his fighting thanks to his deadly cutlery skills and fatality move, which includes ripping out an opponent's heart.

Everyone knows him as a rogue Australian mercenary and the arch-nemesis of Special Forces members Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs, who maimed Kano's eye. Kano's origins have been solidified in the latest games, which have him swilling beers while mouthing off in Aussie slang, but his current identity was not set in stone until the release of the first live-action Mortal Kombat movie in 1995.

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In the film, Kano faces off against Sonya early on during the martial arts tournament, where she kills him, bringing an end to his relatively brief appearance. Although he's slated to appear again in the Mortal Kombat reboot set to hit theaters next year, he was completely absent from the 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Despite having such a small part of the first film, Kano's ended up having a major impact on the character's backstory.

Kano was originally written as an orphaned Japanese-American who became the leader of the Black Dragon crime syndicate and was an internationally wanted criminal; however, Trevor Goddard's portrayal of Kano in the first film made such an impression on Ed Boon and John Tobias, the creators of the game, that they retconned the character's biography. Goddard himself was English but used an Australian accent for the part, which is now an indelible part of the character. Though the other details remained the same, this little change made a big difference.

This is evident in the gradual evolution of Kano's appearance, fighting abilities and status in the games. After being merely a background prop in the second game, he returned for Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) and has been a steady character in the games since. His power concurrently grew, as he went to Outworld where he located the Eye of Chitian (a powerful artifact), became general of its army and supplied Shao Kahn with weapons before allying himself with Kronika, a powerful goddess who controls time.

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He also went from having a buzzcut and wearing a white karate Gi in the original arcade game to having a shaved head, mustache and dragon tattoos on his arms in Mortal Kombat 11. The cybernetic enhancements to his body have increased throughout the series, as have his use of weapons and deadly moves. Furthermore, his speech has become distinctly more Australian, with him saying things like, "Shut up and bleed, you drongo," "Nice bit of tucker," "Piece of piss," "Don't be such a sook" and "You alright, mate?"

The first Mortal Kombat movie, thanks to one small acting decision, changed the entire trajectory of the franchise, as seen by Kano, whose origin went from Japanese-American to Australian, which the games mimicked afterwards. It's hard to imagine Kano now any differently. With the latest live-action movie hitting theaters soon, which features Josh Lawson as Kano, expect to see more of this devious scoundrel from down under.

Produced by James Wan through New Line Cinema, and marking the debuts of screenwriter Greg Russo and director Simon McQuoid, Mortal Kombat reboot hits theaters January 15, 2021, and stars Ludi Lin, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mehcad Brooks, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Sisi Stringer, Joe Taslim, Elissa Cadwell, Max Huang, Lewis Tan, Nathan Jones and Matilda Kimber.

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