Mortal Kombat casts Sonya Blade, Kano, and new mystery lead

Three heavy hitters are joining the cast of Mortal Kombat, director Simon McQuoid’s live-action movie based on the classic videogame franchise that’s set to start shooting in Australia this fall.

Joining the still-expanding character roster are Jessica McNamee (The Meg) as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson (Bombshell) as Kano, and Lewis Tan (Deadpool 2) as an undisclosed lead character, EW has learned.

Sonya, portrayed by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras in 1995’s Mortal Kombat and Sandra Hess in 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, is a general of Earthrealm Special Forces and friend of Jax Briggs, who will be played by Supergirl vet Mehcad Brooks in the new film. Her nemesis is Kano, an arms dealer and leader of the Black Dragon clan.

While Tan’s character is unknown at this time, the actor is no stranger to action roles. He appeared briefly as Shatterstar in Deadpool 2, Zhou Cheng in Marvel and Netflix’s Iron Fist, and Gaius Chau in AMC’s Into the Badlands. He also stars on Netflix’s Wu Assassins. As it happens, Tan already has a spot in Mortal Kombat‘s legacy, having played Kung Jin in the Mortal Kombat X: Generations web series.

This new trio join previously cast Brooks, Power Rangers‘ Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, The Night Comes For Us‘ Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Thor: Ragnarok‘s Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, and newcomer Sisi Stringer as Mileena.

All these characters featured in Mortal Kombat 11, which was released this past April and is the top-selling game this year in the U.S.

The Conjuring and Aquaman director James Wan produces the new Mortal Kombat film, which will take story inspiration from multiple sources in the game’s canon, including Mortal Kombat 11. Greg Russo penned the latest draft of the script.

The movie is scheduled for release on March 5, 2021.

The Hollywood Reporter was the first to report the news.

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