James Wan's Mortal Kombat Casts Kano, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, and Shang Tsung,
Jorge Arenas
The upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot from producer James Wan has found a few more of its cast members ahead of its 2021 release.
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Australian actor Josh Lawson has signed up to portray the leader of the Black Dragon clan Kano in the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie. He's a mercenary by trade which is how the character has found himself in the crosshairs of Sonya Blade, and other Kombatants such as Nightwolf in the game's lore. Due to his greed for wealth and power, he found himself in the position to compromise Earth Realms defense against Shao Kahn of Outworld. In fact, he would become part of Kahn's inner circle.
The report also reveals The Meg actress Jessica McNamee will play Sonya Blade. McNamee, a fellow Aussie, is known for roles such as Sirens as well as Into The Dark.
Sonya Blade is a chief defender of Earth Realm and member of its special forces charged with protecting the Realm from external threats such as Outland. Before the original Mortal Kombat tournament, Sonya Blade was a member of the United States Special Forces, who was at the time in pursuit of Kano and his Black Dragon Clan.
The Hollywood Reporter also revealed that Wu Assassins's actor Lewis Tan has been cast. Like McNamee, Tan is currently in final negotiations to play a yet to be announced character in the upcoming Mortal Kombat film.
Variety reported that the roles of Scorpion and Shang Tsung have also been cast.
According to them, the New Line production has brought in Chin Han to take on the role of the soul-sucking sorcerer and Hiroyuki Sanada to play the undead ninja Scorpion.
Chin Han is best known for his roles in both The Dark Knight and Skyscraper as well as Netflix's Marco Polo. He will be bringing to life the shape shifter who uses the tournament to not only do the bidding of his outland master Shao Kahn but to also stay young and healthy.
Hiroyuki Sanada was just recently seen in Avengers: Endgame. He will also appear in the upcoming season of Westworld. He will play Scorpion, an undead ninja hellspawn specter bent on revenge against those who killed him, his clan, and his family.
These casting announcements follow those of Mileena and Raiden. (Related: James Wan's Mortal Kombat Film Race Swaps Raiden and Mileena)
Currently, there are no real plot details on the Mortal Kombat reboot, but we can expect information to trickle online in the coming months.
Mortal Kombat will be directed by Simon McQuaid with James Wan coming in as producer. The movie is expected to come out March 2021.
What do you think of all of the cast so far? Does any specificity stand out too you? And do they match up with expectations? Let me know your thoughts!
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