The Mortal Kombat character Johnny Cage could be very closely impressed by real-world motion star Jean-Claude Van Damme, to the extent that Cage’s authentic look is principally a direct carry from the seminal JCVD flick Bloodsport. It took greater than 30 years, however now the Mortal Kombat universe lastly has the actual deal: The Muscle tissues from Brussels might be obtainable as an optionally available pores and skin for Johnny Cage within the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1.
Van Damme’s look in Mortal Kombat 1 was revealed—after all—in a wildly violent trailer that concludes with a gratuitously brutal fatality that sees Johnny Cage go for a experience in considered one of JCVD’s costly European sports activities vehicles. (Most of him, anyway.) It is pretty typical Mortal Kombat fare, and nearly restrained in comparison with among the finishers we have seen through the years.
What I actually like concerning the trailer, although, is the way in which Van Damme rolls with the inherent absurdity of the entire thing. Johnny Cage has at all times been performed for laughs extra overtly than different members of the MK solid, primarily due to the character of the character: A fading Hollywood hero who’s so determined to reverse his fortunes that he joins a to-the-death preventing match that he clearly has no enterprise being in.
Skinny-skinned film stars may not discover the portrayal fully flattering—Cage is unquestionably what you might name the Komic aid—however Van Damme appears to embrace it. On the very least, he is keen to go together with it: He even emulates Johnny Cage’s funniest second from the sensible “Outdated Skool vs New Skool” Mortal Kombat 11 trailer.
Attention-grabbing facet observe: Mortal Kombat was initially envisioned as a gritty tackle Avenue Fighter starring Van Damme because the central character. When that fell via—Van Damme was simply coming into the height of his energy at the moment, and possibly had neither time for nor curiosity in trifling with a videogame—the design advanced into the sport as we all know it as we speak.
“Our authentic intention was to make Van Damme: The Arcade Sport,” Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon mentioned in a latest episode of Sizzling Ones. “Bloodsport was huge, and Common Soldier. So we referred to as his folks, and we’re like, ‘We wish to make a recreation based mostly on Van Damme,’ and I do not know if he declined or it simply by no means bought to him or one thing like that, however—once more, this can be a couple of 20-something-year-old youngsters eager to make a videogame—I can see how Van Damme would go, ‘No, no, we’re not doing this’.
“We tried quite a lot of instances going forwards and backwards with him. This time, we hit the lottery, and we bought him. We even have his voice, he’ll be the Johnny Cage character, and it’s the absolute full-circle second.”
Considerably mockingly, two years after the primary Mortal Kombat got here out Van Damme headlined the big-budget Avenue Fighter movie as Guile, starring alongside Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen, and Kylie Minogue.
Jean-Claude Van Damme might be obtainable as a pores and skin for Johnny Cage as a part of the Kombat Pack, which additionally affords early entry to 6 DLC characters (Quan Chi, Ermac, Takeda Takahashi, Peacemaker, Omni-Man, and Homelander) and 5 new Kameo Fighters, all of which might be launched submit launch. Van Damme is not the one huge title coming to the sport—JK Simmons and Megan Fox are additionally on board—however he has the distinctive distinction of being the one one showing as himself. It is about time.