Nearly thirty years after its initial debut and appropxiamtely twenty-five after its obscene graphic violence help pioneer a new age of video game censorship, NetherRealms Studios’ iconic franchise Mortal Kombat is, at long last, finally getting a 21st Century reimagining on the silver screen, as produced by professional gore-guru James Wan (of Saw and The Conjuring fame). It’s among the most controversial video-game franchises to ever hit mainstream success – with not an ounce of PG family fun coursing through its veins – and also features, aptly, one of the most iconic character casts ever assembled – not just in a fighting game but across the medium as a whole – battling it out in the glorious titular tournament of Mortal Kombat, maybe even taking a throttled skull or two home as souvenirs. But if you’re not already familiar with the video game industry’s ode to The Evil Dead then fret not; below is a brisk rundown of all the Kast’s major players, their quirks, their hopes and dreams in life, and the methods they opt towards when deciding how to sadistically slaughter the ESRB rating system…
Sub-Zero (AKA Bi-Han)
Portrayed by: Joe Taslim
Introduced in the original Mortal Kombat and then subsequently recast as his younger brother, Kuai Liang, for all the ensuing sequels, Bi-Han is a devout member of the Lin Kuei assassin family; a notorious cryomancer capable of conjuring ice-weapons from thin air and freezing limbs down to -500° Farenheit (or -300°C for not-America); and is often considered one of the brand’s two key mascots alongside his arch-rival Scorpion. His interests include using ice powers to teleport (just go with it), mercilessly killing targets in increasingly heinous ways, long walks on the shores of Antarctica and beating, wherever possible, his aforementioned sworn enemy, Scorpion, to an icy pulp.
Scorpion (AKA Hanzo Hasashi)
Portrayed By: Hiroyuki Sanda
Serving, alongside Sub-Zero, as the impromptu face of the Mortal Kombat brand, this spectral ninja – once a member of the Shirai Ryu clan, now a literally resurrected flaming skull and wielder of “hellfire” – has fluctuated between antagonist and anti-hero across his decade-spanning stint within this world, yet remains no less feisty today than he did in his ruthless debut, hellbent on vengeance for the tragic loss of his family. His weapon of choice, infamously, is the kunai knife, flinging it at his foes from across the room while barking at them, rather aggressively, to, quote, ahem, “GET OVER HERE!!!!!”
Raiden
Portrayed By: Tadanobu Asano
There is little else to say about Raiden other than he is, quite literally, the God of Thunder, and that he and his super fashionable straw hat are the chief guardians of “Earthrealm” and mentor all of Earth’s Kombatants brought into the titular tournament, often by himself. Due to being a God, he himself is forbidden from competing in Mortal Kombat, though that has yet to prevent him enacting his thunderous wrath in every game since the first, equipping his trusty bō staff and zap-hands to make sparks fly. Add this to a penchant for pondering the thralls of existence due to his unique ability to see the future (to this extent, one assumes he is also forbidden from Mortal Kombat’s gambling committee), and Raiden is the ultimate source of inspiration and electricity bills in Earth’s fight for victory during the brawls of Mortal Kombat.
Sonya Blade
Portrayed By: Jessica McNamee
Despite, at one point in time, being the token female character of the Mortal Kombat franchise (being the first and only female fighter in the original arcade game), her previous penchant for damselling in distress has since evolved into a kick-ass soldier, expert gymnast and technologically superior weapon waging war in the titular tournament. She is headstrong yet caring, unabashedly hateful of the villainous Kano (more on his Terminator-esque face later) but a key grounding agent of humanity amidst a cast of Gods, four-armed goliaths (more on his…. abominable-esque face later) and resurrected flaming skulls, and a key component of Earth’s “Outer World Investigation Agency (OIA),” protecting humanity against the scum of the universe in the most not Men in Black way possible.
Jax Briggs
Portrayed By: Mehcad Brooks
From the OIA’s lead kickass to to its lead, period, Jax Briggs is hardly a laid back, pencil-pushing boss for Sonya Blade to serve under, instead, himself, being among the strongest men on Earth, even before his arms got decimated and two mental implants put the power of earthquakes in his hand. There is nothing inherently magical about Jax but his cybernetic enhancements blur the line to the utmost edge – a man traumatised by his experiences yet capable of ruthless focus and determination, and the man that, prior even to the events of Mortal Kombat, gave Kano’s face a molten-hot makeover. Speaking of…
Kano
Portrayed By: Josh Lawson
Partially inspired, for his face, by the end of Terminator 2, Kano is the most quintessentially evil human bad-guy of the Mortal Kombat franchise, a sworn enemy of the OIA, and the ruthless leader of the Black Dragon mercenary group – sly, brutal, vulgar (to quote the Mortal Kombat Wikipedia: he enjoys “urinating wherever he pleases”) and unafraid to sacrifice not just his allies but the entirety of Earth itself for personal gain. And he is also Australian, filled to the brim with idioms and, well, vulgarity. His most notable physical attribute is his face – a metallic plate adorned with a glowing red bionic eye, again very reminiscent of Arnie – while his most infamous method of… sadism involves the stealing of hearts, both figuratively with the fans and literally with his excessively strong hands.
Liu Kang and Kung Lao
Portrayed By: Ludi Lin (Left, Liu Kang); Max Huang (Right, Kung Lao)
These two figures – one, Liu Kang, the ultimate hero of the franchise; the other, Kung Lao, a descendent of a great warrior and professional cocky brat – are both quintessential members of the White Lotus Society, a sect of Shaolin Monks until the developers decided gore was preferable (Fun Fact: Liu Kang’s original finisher was “non-lethal,” yuck!) and thus made them merely Shaolin Monk-inspired instead. Liu Kang was the lead protagonist of both the original game and the two 90s films and enjoys transforming himself into a dragon during his spare time, while Kung Lao makes his silver screen debut with this 2021 film and uses a Goldfinger-inspired razor-rimmed hat to slice his foes in half, quite literally, as one fatality pits him, using it as a buzzsaw for dragging vanquished enemies through as they scream and claw oh-so-desperately for their lives. In one corner is the ultimate source of good and honesty within this otherwise treacherous realm, and in the other is a bratty Saw fanboy who masquerades as a monk.
Goro and Mileena
Portrayed By: Angus Sampson (Above, Voice of Goro); Sisi Stringer (Below, Mileena)
Although both Prince Goro of the Shokan and Princess Mileena of the “Flesh Pits” (sorcerer Shang Tsung’s genetic experimentation lab) could not be more superficially far apart in their appearance and stature, their mutual disdain for all things wholesome and quirky love of the old ultraviolence (Goro via his brutish four-armed strength; Mileena through a hefty appetite for… people) makes them a figurative match made in heaven. Goro, crucially, is one of the longest running champions of Mortal Kombat, a hulking behemoth of a… thing with a penchant for brutality and murder, while Mileena, as the genetically engineered stepdaughter of interdimensional warlord Shao Kahn, has consistently served as one of the franchise’s more minor antagonists yet one with a typically gruesome punch. Both fighters attempt to make excellent use of their raw sex appeal in flirting with foes for the upper hand, although given the phrase “revolting” is often tossed around to describe Mileena alone, one would assume Goro doesn’t have much luck himself.
Shang Tsung
Portrayed By: Chin Han
Shang Tsung, the Arch-Nemesis of Liu Kang and ultimate final boss of the first game, may have once been presented as a frail, old man in his early appearances but has since been cemented as among the franchise’s most despotic villains: a shapeshifting, soul-stealing sorcerer that needs to consume the souls of others to live, hosts the titular tournament, regularly enjoys resurrecting fighters back from the dead, and frequently constructs new funky abominations in his aforementioned “Flesh Pits,” which are presumably as sanitary and up-to-code as the title suggests. He is the architect behind Mileena and relishes in the lavish decadence of life – perhaps not the nicest wizard (he is, after all, greatly inspired by Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China), but a sure-fire party animal and surgeon that may-or-may-not have never even had a medical license to begin with.
And Introducing: Cole Young
Portrayed By: Lewis Tan
Making not just his silver-screen debut but his first ever Mortal Kombat appearance period, professional stuntman Lewis Tan’s MMA fighting Cole Young is a batch of fresh blood just begging to be spilled on the pavements of MK legend; a far-cry for many fans, perhaps, from the previously iconic protagonist roles of Liu Kang, Sonya Blade and even, to some extent, Sub-Zero, yet nonetheless an exciting new audience surrogate “blessed” by the Dragon Mark, which seemingly made him destined to appear in his generation’s Mortal Kombat at birth. There is little actually known about Young besides he is, in fact, there, but screenwriter Greg Russo has claimed there is a dash of his own personal life imbued into Young, indicating that he is not just a placeholder for fisticuffs and non-consensual heart transplants, and is instead an actual new, fleshed-out member of the Mortal Kombat family going forward.
Film Scribe 