{"id":352381,"date":"2025-12-16T19:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352381\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T19:46:07","slug":"karl-urban-says-johnny-cage-is-the-most-physically-demanding-role-hes-ever-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/352381\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl Urban Says Johnny Cage Is the Most Physically Demanding Role He’s Ever Had"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karl Urban<\/a> is no stranger to projects that require tons of stunts and stamina. But his latest movie proved more challenging than riding horses in Middle-earth, ripping through Asgard as a Marvel villain, fighting dystopian crime with a helmet permanently clamped on his head, or battling superheroes who are secretly supervillains. Apparently, Mortal Kombat II<\/a>\u2018s Johnny Cage<\/a> required the seasoned action star to dig extra deep.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, Urban revealed the surprising trials that came with playing Cage\u2014a fan-favorite character from the games who is himself an action star, albeit of a cheesier, more B-movie caliber.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most challenging role that I\u2019ve ever undertaken in my career,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the martial arts. The form and the style of martial arts is so specific, and the choreography, at times, is so definitive in its movement, and there\u2019s a precision of execution for it to look good. It was a huge challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

He specifically sought out an action-forward role after filming The Boys\u2018 fourth season, which saw his character, Billy Butcher, battling cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really have much action that season,\u201d he told EW. \u201cI had fuel in the tank. I just wasn\u2019t satiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he didn\u2019t just physically train for the role; he also did some deep dives to bring context to the character.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of my research, I went to karate tournaments and looked at the younger generation of martial artists coming through to see what it was like growing up in that environment, as I imagine Johnny Cage had done when he was a kid,\u201d he told EW.<\/p>\n

Mortal Kombat II also stars Adeline Rudolph (Kitana), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Josh Lawson (Kano), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Lewis Tan (Cole Young), and more. It\u2019s directed by Simon McQuoid, who made the 2021 Mortal Kombat film, and hits theaters May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl Urban is no stranger to projects that require tons of stunts and stamina. But his latest movie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,193579,95256,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-352381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-karl-urban","12":"tag-mortal-kombat-ii","13":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}