Karl Urban back on set of 'Mortal Kombat 2' as shooting resumes

Los Angeles, Nov 16 (IANS) The shooting for the sequel to 2021’s ‘Mortal Kombat’ has now once again begun as the Hollywood strikes come to an end. Joining the set, actor Karl Urban shared a new image from the set who announced that the shooting is now back on.

Taking to his social media, the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ actor shared a picture of himself with the crew of ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ and wrote: "We're back baby! ‘MK2’. Let's go!! Love this cast."

Urban will be playing the role of Johnny Cage, a B-class Hollywood actor and martial artist who does his own stunts and has a massive ego. One of the fighters of Earth realm, the character has been a fan-favourite in the iconic game series and the movie will see Cage performing his own bloody fatalities.

For the unversed, a fatality is a special type of kill in the ‘Mortal Kombat’ games which is unique to each character and uses a unique animation to showcase the bloodiest and most gruesome kills.

Filming of the sequel started back in June, and the plan was to be wrapped by September. Production was shut down in July, however, as a result of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

As many projects that had been postponed wound up getting significant delays, it was unclear when ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ might resume, though it is fairly high on the studio's priority list, according to Collider.

The first ‘Mortal Kombat’ film followed the son of Scorpion, Cole Young (Lewis Tan) who is an original character created for the movie. Selected for the Mortal Kombat tournament, an ancient tradition that pits the best warriors of Earth realm against the best from Outworld.

If Earthrealm wins, the realm is safe. However, if they lose, Outworld has the right to invade them and conquer their people. The film showcases classic video game characters like Scorpion played by Hiroyuki Sanada, Kano played by Josh Lawson, Jessica McNamee as Sony Blade, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang , Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Tadanbou Asano as Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, and Max Huang as Kung Lao.

Director Simon McQuoid will be returning to direct the feature film alongside MCU’s ‘Moon Knight’ writer Jeremy Slater. Aside from Karl Urban, the list of newcomers to the movie includes Tati Gabrielle (Jade), Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, CJ Bloomfield as Baraka, Ana Thu Nguyen as Sindel, Desmond Chiam as King Jerrod, and Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn.