JEAN-CLAUDE Van Damme will be the star of a big-name fighting game coming this year.
While he has turned down the role for many years, the 62-year-old actor finally accepted the part.
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Van Damme was supposed to play Mortal Kombat’s Johnny Cage since the series started, but always turned down the role.
The team apparently asked the ‘Muscles from Brussels’ to take part almost every year, but Van Damme always declined.
In an interview with Polygon, series creator Ed Boon said: “He was supposed to be Johnny Cage.
“We took images of Bloodsport and talked about digitised graphics and how it’s going to be [Van Damme] in the game.
“At some point he passed. But we later inquired, maybe a couple of times, as recently as, [Mortal Kombat 9], if he wanted to be in a skin in the game.
“For some reason, it just never came through.”
It seems Van Damme has changed his mind, and he will now play Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, called Mortal Kombat 1.
The game will be released this September, in the midst of three big-name fighting game releases, including Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.
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It’s likely that the new Johnny Cage will be modelled after Van Damme in his prime, as the series no longer uses the digitised sprites it became famous for.
However, it’s possible that Van Damme records voice lines for the role.
Van Damme has a close connection with fighting games after appearing as all-American hero Guille in the 1994 Street Fighter film.
While the film was panned by critics, it was a hit at the box-office, and has since become a cult classic.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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