How The Mortal Kombat Movie Changed Kano’s Design

One of the original characters from the first Mortal Kombat arcade game, Kano, has been a staple of the Mortal Kombat franchise. His likeness has undergone some changes over the years, but the mercenary has been a recurring antagonist since he first appeared. 

Kano made his video game debut in 1992 in the first Mortal Kombat game. The ruthless mercenary is the leader of the Black Dragon, an international crime syndicate. He’s also the enemy of Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs, with his mission to elude the Special Forces members being his primary story line throughout the series. Of the seven original Mortal Kombat characters, Kano has appeared in the fewest games as a playable character. He was the final fighter to be added to the first game.

According to Jeff Rovin’s official Mortal Kombat novelization, Kano was originally supposed to be an American of Japanese descent, and he was discovered by the Black Dragon as a five-year-old orphan child. However, the late Trevor Goddard portrayed Kano in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film with an Australian accent. This accent by the English actor completely changed the character’s canon, and Kano was portrayed as an Australian, while also using Australian colloquialisms, in future games.

How Mortal Kombat’s Kano Changed Looks

It turns out that Trevor Goddard had a lot to do with the future design changes for Kano. In all Mortal Kombat appearances up to for the 1995 film, Kano had either a shaved head or a receding hairline to mimic the actor Richard Divizio, who was modeling for the character. Starting with Mortal Kombat: Special Forces and following through Deadly Alliance, MK vs DC: Universe, and the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, Kano was given a full head of hair and the aforementioned Australian accent as a tribute to the actor, who died in 2003 from an accidental drug overdose.

Kano’s physical appearance has changed a lot over the years. The Australian crime lord originally had a large helmet with two red eyes, which was scrapped for a small metal plate over his right eye. The change was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in The Terminator. A series reboot tentatively titled Mortal Kombat 8 would have seen a much different Kano, envisioned as a “half Japanese, half U.S. military badass” by Midway Games concept artist Vincent Prose, but the game was canceled.

The current version of Kano is much creepier: a criminal, with two large black dragon tattoos snaking around his arms, appearing shirtless with a bandoleer, or wearing a black vest with a cord around his neck containing a single tuft of Sonya Blade’s hair. Kano is set to appear again in the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie, portrayed by Australian actor Josh Lawson, but it’s unclear as of right now if he will return in future Mortal Kombat games.

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