Ludi Lin is in talks to play Liu Kang in the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie produced by James Wan. The fighting video game has already been put to the big screen twice before in 1995 and the 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. After over two decades on the shelf, New Line Cinema is gearing up to reboot the franchise.
The new film is directed by Simon McQuoid and written by Greg Russo, and the latter has been teasing a proper adaptation of the violent video game this time around. The movie is going to have an R-rating and include game accurate fatalities for its cast of characters. With the movie gearing up to start filming, the focus of the Mortal Kombat team has been on casting. The first casting announcement came a few weeks ago when The Raid's Joe Taslim joined as the film's Sub-Zero.
According to a new report from Variety, New Line and the Mortal Kombat team are talking to Ludi Lin about joining the cast. Lin has not officially signed on at this point, but he will play the role of Liu Kang if a deal is made. Kang is one of the original seven characters from the very first Mortal Kombat video game and was played by Robin Shou in the original film adaptations. Mortal Kombat is set to hit theaters in March 2021.
Lin is still a relative newcomer to acting, but the martial arts specialist has quickly found himself involved in some high profile work. His biggest role came in 2017 when he played Zack the Black Ranger in Power Rangers. From there, he joined the cast of Aquaman in a small role, which is where he first worked with Wan and may have given him a leg up in possibly landing this new role. Lin also recently appeared in the "Striking Vipers" episode of Black Mirror, where he played a kung fu fighter named Lance in a video game.
With his charisma, Lin is a welcomed addition to the cast of Mortal Kombat and will likely be his biggest role to date when all is said and done. But, him and Taslim being the first two to join the movie is hopefully an indication that the film is prioritizing finding actual martial artists for these roles. If that is something Mortal Kombat is looking for with its entire cast, then it should allow the movie to do practical elaborate fight sequences with its lead actors. The fatalities and some of the powers won't be able to happen this way, but the actual hand-to-hand combat abilities of its stars could help Mortal Kombat stand apart in a crowd of action movies.
Source: Variety
