Mortal Kombat 2 movie may have cast the perfect Shao Kahn

New Line’s follow-up to 2021’s live-action Mortal Kombat movie is going to 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 an appropriately huge, menacing, and absolutely ripped dude to play the film’s ultimate big bad, Shao Kahn: British actor Martyn Ford.

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

Ford, a six-foot eight-inch actor and bodybuilder best known for playing the lead role in Boyka: Undisputed, where he played the gigantic Bane-like antagonist Koshmar and fought Scott Adkins’ Boyka in a exhilarating finale. Since then, he has appeared in The Golden Circle: KingsmanThe following are some examples of how to get started: 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 television series, Blood Drive:

Syfy

And here’s Ford standing next to fellow huge guy Dave Bautista:

Dave Benett/WireImage

At six-eight, Ford stands just six inches shy of Shao Kahn’s height as listed in the Mortal Kombat games, so, yeah, he’s a big fella. Check out Ford’s Instagram account if you want to imagine what he’ll look like holding a giant maul.

Mortal Kombat 2,’s cast also includes recent castings Adeline Rudolph and Tati Gabrielle, both from Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of SabrinaKarl Urban ( ) as Kitana or Jade. Karl UrbanThe Boys, DreddJohnny Cage is now onboard.

Joining the — OK, fine — kast 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. Kano and Kung Lao both died in the last movie. So?

Mortal Kombat 2,Filming is taking place in Australia. The sequel’s screenplay was penned by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight: The Umbrella Academy). There is no release date for the film.