Ever since making his first appearance in a Hollywood blockbuster as part of Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai, Hiroyuki Sanada has been near the top of the list any time productions find themselves on the hunt for a grizzled Japanese badass, which is fairly understandable when the 60 year-old has a face that looks like it was chiseled out of granite and boasts almost half a century of martial arts training under his belt.
Sanada’s feature film debut came all the way back in 1966, but it would be nearly four decades until he pitched up Stateside. Since then, he’s become a recognizable presence after lending support in Sunshine, Rush Hour 3, The Wolverine, 47 Ronin, Avengers: Endgame and most recently, the Mortal Kombat reboot, while he’ll next be seen in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead and John Wick director David Leitch’s Bullet Train.
The marketing may have placed Sanada’s Scorpion at the forefront, but he was only in the aforementioned reboot for roughly ten minutes, and was largely used as a plot device to tie Lewis Tan’s Cole Young to the mythology. That being said, he still made an impression during the action sequences that bookended the narrative and continued his centuries-old rivalry with Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero.
Fans are eager for more of him, too, and we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Luke Skywalker would cameo in The Mandalorian season 2 – that Sanada’s involvement in the Mortal Kombat sequel will see him be given a much bigger role that’ll factor heavily into the story, based on the overwhelmingly positive response to his contributions the first time out. Further details remain unclear, but we’re expecting the titular tournament in the follow-up, which should give the actor ample opportunity to cut loose and show what he can really do.
from We Got This Covered https://ift.tt/2SwgXXK
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