Mortal Kombat 2 Can Finally Fix Johnny Cage’s Powers Issue

Mortal Kombat2 will likely feature Johnny Cage, and that will give the movie a chance to fix one of the games’ biggest mistakes in terms of Cage’s powers. After months of uncertainty, a sequel to Mortal Kombat(2021) was finally announced by Warner Bros. Mortal Kombat2 will be the fourth live-action film in the franchise and should see the Earthrealm champions preparing for the tournament now Shang Tsung failed to end the Mortal Kombat before it even started.

Taking many by surprise, Mortal Kombat chose not to feature one of the saga’s most famous characters, Johnny Cage. However, the film ended with a clear tease of the Hollywood B-Movie star, indicating that Johnny Cage will be part of Mortal Kombat2. Although Johnny Cage was a human unaware of the realms’ history, he inexplicably had powers in the games. It wasn’t until 19 years after the first Mortal Kombat game that MK 11 explained the origin of Johnny Cage’s green energy blasts, and the answer was nothing more than an uninspired retcon. The game simply revealed that Johnny Cage was a descendant of an ancient cult whose warriors had superhuman abilities, something that completely missed the character’s “outsider” factor.

Unlike the games, Mortal Kombat2 already has the perfect justification for Johnny Cage’s powers. The Mortal Kombat sequel won’t have to use the same retcon as the games, and instead can rely on the dragon mark plot line from the first movie. In Mortal Kombat, those born with or given the mark are not only selected for the tournament, but are also given a special ability known as arcane. Johnny Cage is already on Cole Young’s radar as proven by the final scene of Mortal Kombat, which means he’s already marked. Just as Sonya Blade and Jax — two humans with no connection to any magical clan — received their special abilities because of the mark, Johnny Cage can have his strength increased, and his green energy blasts explained by the arcane idea.

The idea of a mark that distinguishes Earthrealm warriors and gives them a special ability was one of the best insights from the 2021 movie. Virtually every playable character in the Mortal Kombat games had some kind of special power, and the games didn’t get really deep into the how or why. In cinematic language, it’s harder to introduce so many fantastical elements without breaking the sense of realism that modern films usually have. With the arcane concept, however, Mortal Kombat solved this problem and offered a simple explanation for its character’s powers.

The dragon mark plot line can even be used to reference Johnny Cage’s game background — if that’s where the movie wants to go. Rather than simply saying that Johnny Cage comes from a clan of warriors, Mortal Kombat2 can say that the dragon mark passed down through a few generations of Johnny’s family. The other option, much more on par with the character of Johnny Cage, is to say that the actor won the mark in some fight against an already marked warrior.

The possibility of Johnny Cage being in Mortal Kombat2 makes the movie even more exciting, and the sequel also has the advantage of being able to solve the age-old problem of the character’s powers. No retcon or overly complicated story will be needed, as the dragon mark plot line can do the trick of explaining Johnny Cage’s powers. As a consequence, the movie will have a lot more time to explore all the other elements that really make Johnny Cage one of the favorite characters in the franchise.

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Marcelo Leite
(190 Articles Published)

Marcelo Leite is a senior writer for Screen Rant with years of experience in creative and academic writing. Although his chosen field was structure engineering, there is nothing he likes better than writing about the things he loves.

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