For Liu Kang actor Ludi Lin, the Mortal Kombat characters are a big part of the franchise’s appeal. In a Mortal Kombat set visit, Lin discussed the success of the series throughout the years, and what it means to be part of a diverse cast for such a highly-anticipated film. The video games have always featured diverse characters, and the film will reflect that with actors that have the same backgrounds. For Lin, that makes Mortal Kombat feel authentically representative of the real world, and he believes it will also give the movie a better opportunity to succeed in other markets.
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“You don’t know how great it is to feel like, because, look, 60% of the world is Asian. A quarter of the world is Chinese,” said Lin. “And the thing about Mortal Kombat that grips me, I was thinking, why has the game gone through 11 different iterations? It’s the characters.”
Prior Mortal Kombat adaptations have put less emphasis on faithfully adapting this part of the series. Most notably, Christopher Lambert was cast in the role of Raiden for the 1995 film. Lambert’s take on the character is remembered fondly by fans and his likeness even appeared in Mortal Kombat 11, but the reboot will approach things from a different angle. Lin credits director Simon McQuoid for that decision.
“It’s such a diverse mesh of characters. And they’re all so interesting, right? And on this film there are so many different types of people, of different ethnicities from different origins and different backgrounds, and it really represents the world. If you want a film right now to carry throughout the world, which is all films right now, no film is local anymore, all films are going to be seen by people all over the world, you want to represent the world in the right way and in the world there’s not token Asians,” said Lin. “I mean, just filming in Adelaide has really shocked me, coming here and seeing, we’re in Chinatown all the time finding all the great restaurants, and there’s so many people here. There’s just so many colors and coming from so many different cultures, it feels right. The casting for this film feels really authentic, and that’s much credit to Simon [McQuoid] for sure.”
It remains to be seen whether or not Mortal Kombat will be able to deliver on fan expectations, but Lin seems optimistic for the future. At the end of the day, the group is trying to tell the best story that it can.
“All the cast feels it and it feels right, feels so comfortable to be meshed within a cast, coworkers and friends from different places and we have no conflict, no struggle, we’re just trying to tell the great story, you know?”
The Mortal Kombat film reboot will release in theaters and on HBO Max April 16th. Readers can find out more by checking out the rest of ComicBook.com’s coverage of the Mortal Kombat reboot right here.
Are you looking forward to the Mortal Kombat reboot? Are you excited to see Lin’s take on Liu Kang? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!
