WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for Mortal Kombat, now in theaters and on HBO Max.
While the Mortal Kombat reboot featured most of the franchise's original roster, one notable absence was the sunglasses-wearing Hollywood action star Johnny Cage. This, as it turns out, was due to the film already having a similar self-obsessed character.
As Mortal Kombat screenwriter Greg Russo explained to Inverse, Cage's absence was a byproduct of Josh Lawson's Kano becoming integral to the film's group dynamic. "When I was designing the story, I didn't want the traditional 'three heroes save the day,' because you have three people with the same perspective," he said. "I love conflict. I love Kano because he's an asshole and a self-serving prick. That creates conflict. Once everybody knew Kano would be part of [the story], his personality became really big. Really egotistical. That's Johnny Cage, too. I played with Johnny and Kano in scenes together, and it was too much. It was two identical personalities and it took away from everyone else."
"As much as everyone loves [Johnny Cage], it didn't make sense for that story. So we made sure to tease fans for the end," Russo continued. "If we make more movies, we leave ourselves some big characters. My favorite character, Kitana, isn't in the movie because it doesn't fit the story. That goes to show how hard it is to make those decisions."
First played in live-action by Linden Ashby for the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, Johnny Cage has since been portrayed outside the video games by Chris Conrad, Matt Mullins and Casper Van Dien as well as voiced by Joel McHale in Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions' Revenge. Despite not appearing in 2021's Mortal Kombat, the reboot's ending still teased his introduction for a possible sequel. In the scene, protagonist Cole Young reveals that he's officially quitting cage fights and heading over to Hollywood to recruit someone, with the camera panning over to a poster of one of Cage's movies, Citizen Cage.
Directed by Simon McQuoid and produced by James Wan, Mortal Kombat stars Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson "Jax" Bridges, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Matilda Kimber as Emily Young and Laura Brent as Allison Young. The film is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Inverse