Mortal Kombat 1 director considered having every character played by a famous actor

techradar.com:

The co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series and director of Mortal Kombat 1, Ed Boon, has revealed that it was a consideration during the most recent game’s development to have every single character played by a recognizable actor.

“One of the things that I entertained with this game – and this is the 10 out of 10 version – which we didn’t do, was, ‘What if every character in this game was played by an actor?’” Boon told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “Like [if] we got Keanu Reeves to play Kenshi… this is, like, pipe dream. We’re not even thinking of their salaries and all that stuff. What if we made a game that had an actor, a famous, recognizable actor play every character[,] and Johnny Cage was absolutely the one who would have been played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. 

“So, the thought did come to us. But at some point, I don’t know if he would have wanted to do motion-capture work, or if he [says], ‘Just scan my face and have somebody else do all the whatever stuff.’”

Boon acknowledged that this would have meant actors signing up to “a real acting job”, rather than a one-day task that could be completed in a recording studio in an hour, since there are “hundreds of lines of dialogue” to read. 

Of course, even if Mortal Kombat 1 didn’t end up with a completely star-studded cast, many notable actors have still been involved with the game. Johnny Cage now has an alternative skin that looks like Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Megan Fox has provided both her likeness and voice for Nitara. J.K Simmons is reprising his role asInvincible’s Omni-Man in the Kombat Pack 1 DLC, and John Cena is voicing Peacemaker.

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