While Jean-Claude Van Damme is a DLC skin, Megan Fox stars in Mortal Kombat 1’s base roster as vampire Nitara.
The series is no stranger to celebrity cameos, but it seems Mortal Kombat 1 is pulling out all the stops, right out of the starting gate. It already has Dave Bautista (Drax from the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies) promoting it in a new advert but he’s not actually in the game.
This week, developer NetherRealm Studios has highlighted two more celebs that you can play as. The first is Jean-Claude Van Damme, who it had already teased will be a DLC skin for Johnny Cage.
The second, and perhaps the most surprising addition is Megan Fox, hot off promoting Diablo 4 and actually getting to voice one of Mortal Kombat 1’s returning characters, Nitara.
Nitara’s inclusion had already been spoiled beforehand, thanks to someone leaking the full roster, but there was nothing to indicate she had a big-name celebrity voicing her.
‘I think it’s just like an opportunity that anybody would want. Cause we did all grow up playing the game and it is one of the greatest video games of all time,’ says Fox.
You can check out Nitara’s gameplay for yourself below but, obviously, it is very, very violent and bloody so be warned. Although her fatality move is more funny than gory. There’s also a cute if unsubtle Jennifer’s Body reference in one of Nitara’s pre-fight taunts.
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As for Jean-Claude Van Damme, his inclusion as a DLC skin seems a bit odd considering he has no relation to Mortal Kombat. If anything, he’s more associated with Street Fighter, since he played Guile in the delightfully awful 1994 live action movie.
However, creative director Ed Boon explains in a new interview that Van Damme’s appearance was something planned since the very first Mortal Kombat.
Appearing on First We Feast’s Hot Ones, Boon says, ‘When we made the very first game, our intention was to make Van Damme: The Arcade Game. … So we called his people, and we were like ‘we want to make a game based on Van Damme’, and I don’t know if he declined or just never got to him or something like that.
‘But this is, you know, a couple of 20-something-year-old kids who wanted make a video game. I could see how Van Damme would go ‘No, we’re not doing this.’’
After several attempts, they’ve finally got their Van Damme cameo, with Boon adding that he has lent his voice to the skin as well. Although he’ll performing as the Johnny Cage character and not just as himself.
The interview includes a very brief clip of what the Van Damme skin looks like in-game. Unsurprisingly, it’s a much younger Van Damme rather than his current 62-year-old self, but there’s no audio to demonstrate how his performance sounds.
It also doesn’t look anything like him, which is weird.
UPDATE
NetherRealm has since uploaded a proper trailer to highlight the Van Damme skin, complete with a nasty if somewhat humourous fatality. Be warned, it is still pretty grim.
