Featured Image Credit: WWE Network, NetherRealm
Topics: Mortal Kombat, TV And Film, Netherrealm
WWE star Mike ‘The Miz’ Mizanin has revealed that he’s “heartbroken” not to be playing Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 film. Instead, The Boys star Karl Urban has been cast in the role.
It’s been two years since the previous Mortal Kombat film released in 2021. Unlike recent game adaptation The Last of Us, Mortal Kombat wasn’t a critical success - garnering just a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - but it did prove to be a hit with audiences. The audience score sits at 86% and the film made a reported $84.4 million against a budget of $55 million. That’s not bad at all when you consider that, being released in 2021, Mortal Kombat would’ve been impacted by cinema shutdowns and global lockdowns. It was enough for studio execs to give a sequel the greenlight, with Karl Urban cast to come onboard as Johnny Cage.
Speaking of Mortal Kombat, the next game instalment - Mortal Kombat 1 - is set to launch on 14 September.
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Urban was brought onboard as Johnny Cage back in May - and it’s perfect casting. For a long time though, WWE star The Miz was a popular choice for the character amongst fans. The wrestling star soon spotted the fan castings and became quite keen to nab the role. Unfortunately, it didn’t go his way. “I'll be honest, I really wanted to be Johnny Cage," he told ComicBook in an interview. "I've always loved the character Johnny Cage, and when it wasn't in there [the previous film], I was like, 'Oh, wow man, I can't believe they didn't put Johnny Cage in.' And then at the end, you're like, 'Oh man, he's coming in part two.’”
"I remember calling my agent and going, 'Dude, I want this. I don't know what I have to do. Call whoever you have to call. I want this bad. I went out on every interview, and every time someone asked me about this question, I would say, 'I want to be Johnny Cage. I want to be Johnny Cage.' I never got an audition, which is fine. I mean, maybe they just didn't see me as the character. I heard Karl Urban got it, and I was like, 'Wow.' And people were like, 'Are you mad? Are you angry?' And it's like, I never get mad or angry when someone else gets a part that I want.”
"Am I heartbroken that I'm not going to be Johnny Cage? Yes, of course," he added. "But that's the story of life. You literally take your bumps and bruises. I mean, this is Hollywood. This is acting, there's one part. There's millions of people that want that part. There's one, and I didn't get it."