NetherRealm Studios has officially revealed Mortal Kombat 1–a narrative reboot of the acclaimed fighting game franchise–and mixed with all of the new details is an interesting nugget: Action movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme will be available as a downloadable skin for longtime MK character Johnny Cage.
The Van Damme skin will be part of MK1’s first Kombat Pack, which will also include six playable characters and five Kameo Characters–which are a separate roster of characters that are selected to assist a player during a fight, a la the original Marvel vs. Capcom. While the rest of the Kombat Pack will be released after launch, Johnny-Claude Van Cage (not his real name, we promise) will be available on day one.
The inclusion of Jean-Claude Van Damme is a novel callback to Mortal Kombat’s history, as the game was originally conceived as a companion video game to the Van Damme movie Bloodsport before the idea was scrapped. Ideas and assets from that project were repurposed, and the original Mortal Kombat was born.