Actor Lewis Tan has long been confirmed to be a part of the rebooted Mortal Kombat movie, but until recently, we didn’t know who he’d be playing beyond knowing that he’d be taking on a lead role. As of this week, it’s now been confirmed that he’ll play a totally new and unestablished character in the Mortal Kombat universe named Cole Young. Tan shared some details on his character alongside a first image of Cole Young to give some insights into what we can expect from the Mortal Kombat newcomer.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Sharing some of the first images that emerged from the Mortal Kombat movie this week, Tan showed of his character on social media. He also spoke to Entertainment Weekly to give some background on Cole Young before viewers get to see him in action for the first time.
GAME CHANGER. “McQuoid told stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner to craft “the best fight sequences ever done in a movie ever.” In reality, these action pieces are some of the highest-rated elements of the movie to come out of early test screenings” @MKMovie @EW #MortalKombatMovie pic.twitter.com/wz9ZC9Cr4D
— Lewis Tan (@TheLewisTan) January 15, 2021
The character has a birthmark on his chest that’s in the shape of the iconic Mortal Kombat symbol, but it hasn’t been said yet how this connects him to the rest of the Mortal Kombat cast and the movie’s story. Cole Young is eventually hunted by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) at the command of Shang Tsung (Chin Han). Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks) carries the same symbol as Cole and helps usher the character towards his journey where he’ll meet more of Mortal Kombat’s most recognizable character.
“When we first meet Cole, he’s in a really bad spot,” Tan said about the character’s backstory. “He’s down on his luck. He’s kind of a washed-up MMA fighter who used to be a champion, who used to believe in himself, who used to have a lot of hope in his career. And it’s all gone down the drain. It’s a very interesting place for a hero to start, and I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you’re introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly.”
Though Cole is a stranger to Mortal Kombat, Tan certainly isn’t. He commented on how he’s been playing games in the franchise since he was young and said he hopes to respect and pay homage to the stories created before this reboot.
“I’ve been playing the game since I was a kid,” Tan said. “For lack of a better way to describe it, you don’t want to mess it up because it’s so iconic. You want to bring something new to the table that people haven’t seen before, but at the same time, really respect and pay homage to these legendary worlds that were already created.
The Mortal Kombat movie is scheduled to release on April 16th.
