Jean-Claude Van Damme Still Up To Play This Mortal Kombat Character In A Movie
Responding to a fan on social media, Jean-Claude Van Damme said he's still up to play Mortal Kombat's Johnny Cage.
The 62-year-old Jean-Claude Van Damme says he’s still ready to play action movie star Johnny Cage as part of Mortal Kombat‘s big screen franchise. As reported by The Gamer, the Bloodsport star recently responded to a fan’s Facebook comment from June saying he would “love” to play Johnny Cage, along with joking that we could see who would win Cage, Guile–who Van Damme played in 1994’s Street Fighter–or Van Damme himself.
As The Gamer points out, Jean-Claude Van Damme has long supported fan-castings of him in the role of Johnny Cage, and Mortal Kombat 2–the sequel to the 2021 film–is confirmed to be on the way. Johnny Cage is one of the characters that was teased in the first film; it ends with Cole Young (Lewis Tan) leaving to Los Angeles to find Cage.
While there have been names of actors rumored to be either already cast or in contention for the role of Johnny Cage–for example Charlie Hunnam of Sons of Anarchy fame, and even Community‘s Joel McHale–Jean-Claude Van Damme’s isn’t one of them. Still, who knows? He certainly is older than you’d usually picture Cage, but perhaps the novelty of having the eighties action star in the film would make up for the age gap.
Of course, in spite of being in his sixties, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn’t quite done with the action genre. Earlier this week it was announced that the Muscles from Brussels was starring in the upcoming action flick Silent Kill. The film is supposed to begin filming in 2023, with Van Damme leading a group of mercenaries into the jungle in search for lost treasure.
But what is no doubt the most intriguing upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme project is one that’s being billed as his final action film. Jeremy Zag (Miraculous: Chibi) will be directing the star in What’s My Name? in which Van Damme will reportedly be playing a fictional version of himself after suffering an accident that leaves him with amnesia. His epic quest to recover his identity will reportedly include battles with all the biggest villains from his own filmography.
It won’t be the first time Van Damme has played a fictional version of himself. He did so in the 2008 film JCVD and the miniseries Jean-Claude Van Johnson.
There’s no word on whether or not Jean-Claude Van Damme will be directly involved in the TV series spinning out of one of the films that made him a household name. The series Operation: Kickboxer was recently announced with Gary Scott Thompson (The Fast and the Furious) set as showrunner. No word about the cast has been released, including whether or not Van Damme might be involved.
