‘Mortal Kombat’ movie casts ‘The Raid’ star Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero and now I’m listening, friends

The bad: James Wan is directing the new Mortal Kombat movie. Granted, I haven’t seen his horror flicks. But, man. His Fast & Furious installment and Aquaman? Woof. The good: Joe Taslim has been cast as Sub-Zero. So, I suppose we’ll see.

AV Club:

That new Mortal Kombat game is really good, and just like every other time that public opinion on an old media property has swung back into the “positive” range, it’s time now for another bad movie adaptation. We first heard about that back in May, with Warner Bros. announcing that James Wan would be producing the movie for Warner Bros. and New Line, but that was all we knew at the time—meaning there was still a chance for cooler heads to prevail and cancel the movie before anyone has to show up in the comments section of a website to remind everyone that the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie was actually really good even though it’s really not. (Just kidding, it’s fine.)

But now we have our first casting announcement, which means this Mortal Kombat movie is now slightly closer to happening. According to Variety, Jon Taslim from beloved action movie The Raid has signed on to play iconic Lin Kuei ice-ninja Sub-Zero. Variety notes that Sub-Zero was one of the original Mortal Kombat characters, but it doesn’t mention whether Taslim will be playing Bi-Han, the original Sub-Zero, or his younger brother Kuai Liang, who is the more famous Sub-Zero. Bi-Han, of course, was killed by the Shirai Ryu ninja Scorpion (a.k.a. Hanzo Hasashi) in the first Mortal Kombat tournament on Shang Tsung’s island, but he was later resurrected as the undead shadow ninja Noob Saibot (a very subtle nod to Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon and John Tobias). What’s that? You thought these were just stupid video games about people ripping each other’s heads off? Well, you’re wrong.

Anyway, this new Mortal Kombat movie will be the directorial debut of filmmaker Simon McQuoid, and he’ll hopefully be able to resist the temptation of inserting a new ninja character named Diouqcm. The movie is set to premiere on March 5, 2021.