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Mortal Kombat recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, which would be the perfect time to announce NetherRealm’s next project, but the studio had other plans. As fans eagerly await the announcement, one celebrity has expressed her desire to play the iconic character from the MK series.
It’s none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme, a Hollywood veteran who has starred in numerous action films over the years. Van Damme is a skilled karateka and has shown off his martial arts skills in hit movies like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, AWOL and Universal Soldier. Now he has expressed his willingness to play Johnny Cage in the Mortal Kombat movie.
According to Gamebyte, Van Damme responded to a social media comment that called for Warner Bros. cast him as Johnny Cage in the next MK movie.
Thanks guys! I would love to play the part of Johnny Cage. Let’s see who wins, him, Ghiele or me.
For those who don’t know, Van Damme played the role of Giele in the 1994 film Street Fighter. While the movie itself wasn’t a big hit, it tells us that Van Damme has a connection to video games, so his appearance in MK isn’t too far-fetched. Plus, he’s got a great resume considering the number of fighting game movies he’s been in, and his swaggering presence in those movies is exactly what someone who plays Johnny Cage should have. True, the actor is already quite old, but he could play the role of a kind of youth mentor, an elderly Hollywood star teaches his son, who is also called Johnny Cage.
This is not the first time Van Damme has expressed a desire to play Johnny Cage: on his official YouTube channel, he posted a fan-made video showing him as Cage in Bloodsport.
As for the game, the new MK game is still a mystery. NetherRealm’s Ed Boon mentioned that the studio’s next game would not be Mortal Kombat 12, sparking rumors that the next game would be from a completely different franchise. He also expressed a desire to make another Shaolin Monks game, which was a Mortal Kombat spin-off.
