After swapping his Butcher’s coat from The Boys for a doctor’s coat in the Breaking Bad prequel Asylum, Karl Urban is trading his shades for a pair of designer shades for the upcoming sequel, Mortal Kombat II. The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek actor is taking on the role of Johnny Cage, the egotistical martial arts movie star from the long-running video game series, in the next live-action Mortal Kombat film. Mortal Kombat II follows on from Warner Bros.’ 2021 reboot of the series, and is the fourth live-action feature to hit theaters since the original in 1995.

The film’s trailer also came one day after Warner Bros. released a fake, in-universe trailer for Uncaged Fury, a cheesy, ’90s action film “starring” Johnny Cage. Cage’s other (fake) film credits are name-checked in the trailer too, including: Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.

It’s also 2025, which also marks the 30th anniversary of the original live-action Mortal Kombat. A critical bomb upon release, the film still proved to be a box office success and has since gone on to achieve cult classic status. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa’s portrayal of the sorcerer Shang Tsung is considered by some to be the definitive cinematic take. Its follow-up, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was a more notorious example of a film that died at the box office and with the critical reception. The game’s publisher, Midway, was declared bankrupt shortly after.

Years later, when Warner Bros. purchased the rights to the intellectual property, the studio hired Simon McQuoid to direct a reboot more than 20 years after the original film. Mortal Kombat, released in 2021, introduced audiences to the MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), who’s caught in the middle of a struggle for the planet Earthrealm. Reviews for the film were mixed, but it proved to be a commercial success and was greenlit for a sequel, which McQuoid will again direct. At the end of the first film, Cole sets off for Los Angeles, where he meets and is set to recruit his childhood hero, Johnny Cage.

Fan Favorites and New Characters Go Head-to-Head

The official synopsis for Mortal Kombat II assumes some degree of prior knowledge for those who saw the first film. In this one, the champions are joined by Cage and meet to fight in an all-out, no-rules battle to save Earthrealm from Shao Kahn, who’s now looking to complete his conquest of the realm. It’s not made explicit in the trailer, but failure to stop him will result in Earthrealm’s complete and total annihilation.

Returning cast members from Mortal Kombat include Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han/Noob Saibot (aka Sub-Zero), Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Josh Lawson as Kano, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao.

Mortal Kombat II also features several new characters in the cast: Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Damon Herriman, who voiced Kabal in the last film, as Quan Chi, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, CJ Bloomfield as Baraka, Desmond Chiam as King Jerrod, and Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel.

The trailer has an amusing yet knowing introduction for Cage, who’s introduced in a dive bar that’s being recognized by a fan. “I loved Citizen Cage as a kid,” he exclaims. “They should do a reboot!” The other customer replies that nobody would want to watch that because his “brand of cinema went extinct in the ‘90s.”

Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) then enter and inform Cage that “You have been chosen to fight.” It takes him a few moments to register that this isn’t just an overly aggressive fan convention, but he’s instead been taken to a strange, supernatural arena as part of a “fighting tournament to the death.” He makes his stance clear by replying: “F— that.”

Cage argues that he’s being left behind since he has no supernatural powers and claims, “I’m just incredibly handsome.” However, his opinion changes when he learns the fight is to save Earthrealm. He does, though, make it clear his opponents should “keep it to the body,” an order his first opponent doesn’t heed for long. From there, the trailer gives fans everything they’d expect from a Mortal Kombat film—stylized, gory violence; over-the-top finishing moves; and some of the most iconic catchphrases in cinema, like the classic “Get over here!” from Scorpion.

It has the right mixture of bloody action and knowing humor for diehard fans of the series, so long as it all plays as well on-screen. If it can grab a bigger audience beyond just existing fans of the Mortal Kombat universe, though, it is another matter entirely.

Mortal Kombat II will arrive in theaters on October 24, 2025.