Talk about things going full circle. Jean Claude Van Damme is now a playable character skin for the upcoming Mortal Kombat game, Mortal Kombat 1.
The first Mortal Kombat game, which launched in 1992, featured 7 playable characters, who would later become an integral part of the franchise. One of them, Johnny Cage, bore a striking resemblance to Jean Claude Van Damme. At the time, Van Damme was high off of the success of several of his action films, including 1988's Bloodsport.
As it turns out, Midway planned to use JCVD as the actor for the character. After pitching the character to the actor, JCVD reportedly turned them down. Despite this, the studio continued with their initial plans to use JCVD's character from Bloodsport as the inspiration for the character.
Now, several decades later, Jean Claude Van Damme has finally agreed to be Johnny Cage.
Jean Claude Van Damme's Cage skin is part of the game's Kombat Pack add-on and it will come for free with the Premium Edition ($109.99) and Kollector's Edition ($249.99).
The standard edition of Mortal Kombat 1 will cost $69.99 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, Windows PC, and the still-supported Nintendo Switch.