Mortal Kombat: Kano Actor Josh Lawson Talks About Balancing Comedy With Menace

Kano is one of the more interesting characters in the Mortal Kombat universe. Not only is he one of the most brutal people that you’ll find within the franchise, but he also happens to have a pretty sick sense of humor. When it comes to the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie reboot, actor Josh Lawson, who is portraying Kano in the film, explained what it was like to play the character that has this sort of dichotomy.

In a set visit that ComicBook.com attended during the filming of Mortal Kombat, Lawson was asked what it’s like to play a character that has to balance his brutal, villainous nature while also being witty. Lawson said that he believes this is partially because Kano is a character that doesn’t take the universe all that seriously. “He probably gets a little more latitude just because he is not as respectful of the lore of Mortal Kombat,” he explained.

Lawson went on to say that he thinks Kano’s need to occasionally be funny also helps balance out the larger array of characters that are found in Mortal Kombat. “Kano is only funny because he’s balancing you guys. On his own, it’s just sort of, it’s nothing, but it’s a seesaw. The more serious these guys take the mysticism and the sorcery and the power, and the less seriously I can take it, that’s where the comedy exists,” Lawson said of the character. “If someone who’s not a fan, for instance, of the video game, and is maybe seeing these powers and these fighters for the first time you can, I think you could connect with Kano in that way, and love to hate him at the same time.”

At this point in time, it remains to be seen what exactly this new rendition of Kano will have in store. Although we’ve seen quite a bit of Kano in the trailer for Mortal Kombat, we don’t yet know exactly how he will end up fitting into the movie’s plot.

Luckily, we don’t have to wait much longer to find out. Mortal Kombat is set to release in a little under a week on April 23rd and will be arriving both in theaters and on HBO Max.