Mortal Kombat 2 movie found the perfect scary huge guy to be Shao Kahn

By James On Jun 15, 2023

New Line’s sequel to the 2021 live-action Mortal Kombat movie will have a strong Outworld and Netherrealm presence, with Shao Kahn, Jerrod, Sindel and Quan Chi confirmed for director Simon McQuoid’s sequel. In a promising bit of casting news, filmmakers have found a pretty big, menacing, and absolutely ripped dude to play the movie’s ultimate big bad, Shao Kahn: British actor Martyn Ford.

According to a report by deadlineFord will be joined by newly confirmed cast members Desmond Chiam as Edenian King Jerrod (aka Kitana’s father), Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel, and Damon Hermann as the wizard Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat 2.

Ford is a hulking six-foot bodybuilder and actor best known for his debut role in Boyka: Undisputedwhere he played the giant Bane-esque antagonist Koshmar and battled Scott Adkins’ Boyka in a exciting final. Since then he has appeared Kingsman: The Golden Circle And F9: The fast saga, and will appear in Bert Kreischer’s The machine. Here he is as The Ogre in Syfy’s gory, grindhousey, single-season TV series, BloodDrive:

Image: Syfy

And here’s Ford standing next to that big guy Dave Bautista:

Dave Bautista and Martyn Ford pose side by side at the 2018 premiere of Final Score in London, England.

At eighty-eight, Ford is only six inches off Shao Kahn’s height as stated in the Mortal Kombat games, so yes, he’s a big dude. Checking out Ford’s Instagram account if you want to imagine how he will look with a giant maul.

Mortal Kombat 2The cast also includes recent castings of Adeline Rudolph and Tati Gabrielle, both from Netflix Hair-raising adventures of Sabrina, as Kitana and Jade respectively. Carl Urban (The boys, Dredd) is on board as Johnny Cage.

Joining the – OK, fine – closet are returning actors Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung , Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero/Bi-Han, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao. Yes, Kung Lao and Kano died in the previous movie. So?

Mortal Kombat 2 currently filming in Australia. The sequel’s screenplay is written by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight, The Umbrella Academy). The film has no announced release date.