The new Mortal Kombat movie trailer was missing the character of Johnny Cage in favor of bringing in a new character named Cole to serve as the audience surrogate. While they had the excuse that the story focused on the rivalry between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, that wasn't enough. They had to let the following slip: >>Cole Young's creation as a new lead hero also points to the reboot’s emphasis on actors and characters of Asian descent. The modern optics of a Caucasian man playing the lead role in a story about martial arts aren’t great, and Cage’s absence is an excellent opportunity to center Cole’s character and other non-Caucasian fighters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Jax, Raiden, and Liu Kang. Once again, subverters don't even understand the source material they're subverting. Johnny Cage isn't the main character of Mortal Kombat; Liu Kang is. Johnny Cage was excised purely because he's white; [much in the same way that they attempted to replace Daniel Rand in the Iron Fist TV show for the same reason.](https://comicsalliance.com/marvel-iron-fist-asian-american-actor-netflix-petition/) Archive links: [Screenrant article.](https://archive.is/dJp6v) [Comics Alliance article.](https://archive.is/2Occj)