MOVIE NEWS – ‘Controversial’ Mortal Kombat character Cole Young was defended at SDCC…

Overall, Mortal Kombat 2021 is considered a success. While COVID-19 decimated theatre attendance, it managed to pull in a decent amount, which is all the more impressive since it debuted on HBO Max simultaneously. However, some fans were not reconciled with the main character, Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan.

It wasn’t Tan’s performance that upset people, but the character he was playing was brand new. More specifically, the fact that he had a direct relationship with one of the IP’s most iconic characters: Scorpion. Still, in the sequel, he will return alongside familiar characters Jackson Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Liu Kang (Ludi Lin). Screen Rant sat down with Tan at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, and the actor shared his thoughts on the reception.

“Well, it was quite controversial to have a new character in the film, but I think actually, in my opinion, it’s not that controversial, because the Mortal Kombat game started with only a few characters. Nowadays, there’s 100-plus characters, so they’re not new to adding new characters to the film. And yeah, you’ll have to wait and see what kind of journey goes down, but I think people are going to be very surprised.”

Who will fight alongside (or against) Cole Young in Mortal Kombat 2?

As mentioned, McNamee, Brooks and Lin will once again be alongside Tan in the new film. But some of them will return from the reboot. It wouldn’t be the same without Tadanobu Asano’s Raiden: luckily, he’s coming back. In addition, the evil Shang Tsung, practically Raiden’s counterpart, will also return to face his opponent, and Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero will once again throw sharpened ice spears.

Of course, like Raiden and Shang Tsung’s dynamic, Sub-Zero needs his primary enemy.

In the first movie, Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion died early on. Yet he made it into the bloody third act. Fans can expect to see their favourite artist and their favourite character again in the sequel.

There are also some important new characters. The biggest new addition is the iconic action star character Johnny Cage, played by The Boys’ Karl Urban. Then there’s Jade, who debuted in the Mortal Kombat II video game. Tati Gabrielle, known from Uncharted, will play her. In contrast, Adeline Rudolph, known from Riverdale and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series, will play the role of Kitana, making her debut alongside Jade. In other words, the roster of fighters in the movie sequel will be at least as punchy as what we saw in the iconic 1993 video game.

Source: ScreenRant