The Raid’s Iko Uwais Should Play Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion

As news of the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot continues to come out, the James Wan-produced film finally announced its first fighter casting last week — Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero.

For you martial arts film fans out there, Taslim’s name likely rings a bell as he starred in the Gareth Evans’ modern cult classic The Raid back in 2011. For those who have never seen The Raid, it’s 2014 sequel or get confused why the franchise keeps getting brought up, here’s a taste of what the series brought.

Pretty wild stuff, right? While the original film only brought in $9.3 million at the box office in its original release, the small-budget film sent shock waves once it reached the United States as fans were blown away by the incredible fight choreography and usage of the Indonesian fighting style Pencak Silat. The franchise helped its stars like Taslim break into Hollywood, helping him pick up roles in Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek Beyond.

So what does all of this have to do with Mortal Kombat? Well days after the Taslim news broke, the film’s screenwriter Greg Russo confirmed that not only would the new version be rated R (something that woefully hindered the 1995 version), but it would feature fatalities straight out of the games.

This got me thinking — with every appearance of Sub-Zero, his mortal enemy Scorpion isn’t far behind. And if the reboot’s filmmakers want to go all-out in terms of action this time around, they could definitely turn some heads with some Raid-esque style of fights. They can kill two bird with one stone (Double Fatality!) with one simple casting — Iko Uwais as Scorpion.

Uwais was first discovered as a potential actor by Evans back in 2007, and he doubled as the main protagonist Rama and the film fight/action choreographer for both The Raid and The Raid 2. He’s recently since gone on to star in films like Mile 22, The Night Comes for Us and Stuber, all while doubling as the action choreographer on each film.

Pairing him up with Taslim as the two iconic ninjas would not only be an awesome callback to The Raid franchise, but also give the two the chance to blow away audiences with an absolutely vicious style of fighting. Plus with Uwais’ experience in fight choreography, the two could map out their fights against one another without director Simon McQuoid needing to lift a finger.

Fans of the Mortal Kombat franchise were robbed of seeing the rivalry between Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the original Paul W.S. Anderson film. But if this new version cast Uwais opposite Taslim, the rivalry between the two could steal the entire movie no matter what the plot ends up being or who else gets cast.

So what do you think? Should Uwais get the nod as Scorpion or do you have someone else in mind for the role? Sound off in the comments below!