Mortal Kombat is one of the most popular video game series of all-time and it previously spawned what many would say is one of the better film adaptations of a game ever made. However, that was over 20 years ago, and so it was no surprise when a reboot film was announced, and it may have just found its first star. Ludi Lin is reportedly in talks to take on the role of Liu Kang.
Ludi Lin played the small role of Captain Murk in James Wan's Aquaman. Wan is producing the new Mortal Kombat movie. However, recently Lin also played the almost too perfect role of Lance in the Black Mirror episode "Striking Vipers." Lance was a video game avatar inside a game which was clearly inspired by Mortal Kombat and other tournament fighter style games. It seems Ludi Lin was actually auditioning for Mortal Kombat with the role and didn't even realize it.
Variety reports than Ludi Lin is in negotiations to play the role of Liu Kang, a Bruce Lee-inspired martial arts fighter who enters the Mortal Kombat tournament in hopes of saving the earth from an evil sorcerer named Shang Tsung.
Liu Kang is the hero of the original Mortal Kombat movie and is canonically the winner of the tournament of the first Mortal Kombat game as well. Having said that, the exact plot of the new movie is unknown, and considering how many characters have been added over the years and how many different games there have been, it's anybody's guess how important Liu Kang will be to this movie.
With Liu Kang apparently close to being cast, and the role of Sub Zero having already been set, it seems likely that other major Mortal Kombat names will find actors in short order. Characters like Johnny Cage and Sonja Blade, would be conspicuous by their absence if they somehow weren't in the movie, so that seems unlikely. Writer Greg Russo has spoken about the difficulty of figuring out which characters to include in the new movie. There are so many different options available, and too many to include everybody, it seems likely that some fans' favorite characters are destined to be left out.
The only thing we do know for sure is that the movie will feature the game series' famous Fatalities, the brutal and violent finishing moves, and that they will come straight out of thew game.
The new Mortal Kombat movie currently has a release date set for March 5, 2021, which means it will likely begin filming sometime at the end of this year or early 2020.
Considering how popular the first Mortal Kombat movie still is with many fans, there are probably a lot of people anticipating this updated version. Hopefully, the new movie will have a killer soundtrack as well.
