It sounds silly to think that anyone is still a bit sore about Cole Young taking the coveted spot that should have gone to Johnny Cage in the last Mortal Kombat movie, but it’s not entirely inaccurate. So many fans were ready to see Cage in the most recent movie that seeing someone like Cole felt like a slap in the face since he didn’t add much to the movie and folks were pumped to see Cage show up. But when it became obvious that Cole was the focus of the movie thanks to his connection to Scorpion it was obvious that people had to suck it up and just enjoy the movie as much as they could. For the most part, the MK reboot wasn’t too bad and it featured a few very popular characters. But when all was said and done a lot of people were still kind of on the fence about whether or not the movie was that great without Cage. Some of the characters were revealed in a great way, but others kind of dropped the ball.
To be fair, Johnny Cage’s involvement was teased in the last part of the movie, so whenever the sequel comes out we’ll likely see Cage stepping into the franchise once again to do his thing. But it’s still uncertain who will be taking on the role, though it does sound as though Charlie Hunnam might be the frontrunner for the part as of now. That could change, but a lot of people are hoping that it won’t since Hunnam has proven himself to be a great actor throughout his career, and it’s easy to think that he would be a great addition to this franchise. Some would argue that The Miz from WWE would be a little better since he has the arrogant act down pat, but so far it would appear that any and every male actor that’s being considered for this role could fit the bill in a big way.
One huge mistake would be to gender-swap the role since the fact is that none of the other characters have been given this treatment, and it’s fair to say that it shouldn’t happen since there are plenty of characters that are still there to be introduced, meaning that there’s no need to swap people out when the diversity in this game is kind of impressive. But Johnny Cage is one of those characters that people were hoping to see since along with Raiden, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kano, Shang Tsung, Goro, and Sonya, he was one of the founding characters of the first game. This meant that fans wanted to see him show up since everyone else had this same chance, so it didn’t make a lot of sense to leave Cage out of the movie when he could have been a great addition. But a big hope is that the second movie will showcase Cage as an important character and give him more of a chance to shine while Cole is relegated to the role of a supporting character. Taking him out sounds excessive thanks to his role in the first movie, but this time around Cage would need to prove himself as well.
The whole arcana idea that took place in the reboot was enjoyed by some and thought to be kind of awkward by several. It was a way to explain the powers of the characters and how they came to be, but beyond that, it didn’t explain much of anything other than what they were called and how they were granted. One could easily surmise that Cage is going to be granted his arcana in the sequel and that the shadow kick and his other abilities are going to come into play. But the hope is that we’ll see more of Johnny Cage than several other characters since the focus on Cole was a bit, well, annoying. But since Cole is now an established character it’s easy to assume that getting rid of him wouldn’t be a great idea. Making Johnny Cage a more pronounced character however would be a great idea since it would make up for his absence in the first movie, and possibly create a new direction that might introduce another story idea that could keep the franchise moving forward.
A lot of this desire to see Johnny Cage does come down to the simple idea that he is a founding character, and even though he was kind of a joke for a while he’s become a legendary figure that many fans want to see him do his thing. Hopefully, once the second movie comes along Johnny Cage will get his moment to shine, and maybe even manage an attempt to woo Sonya Blade, just so fans can see him get knocked down a peg or two, before becoming a better person.
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