I don't get it, why would you say "We are keeping him for the sequel" ? I mean, how do you even know we would ask for a sequel ? The movie has not been released yet and all the red flags for an awful film are there already. And I love how he says "This character is so awesome... He deserves be part of the sequel", I mean what the fuck lol.
The main lead of the game is Liu Kang anyways, not Johnny. Even if MKX's story was mostly about the Kombat Kids and... well their parents (mostly Johnny and Cassie because they needed someone strong enough to defeat Shinnok, at least according to them), it always has been about Liu Kang, you know, the chosen one.
Yes, in MK9, Johnny is important, but not because he is the main lead, but because he represents the spectator of the story. He discovers the tournament, his and all the supernatural abilities and the stakes at the same time as the player. He follows the Earth team, fights with it, suffers with it and mourns it, just like the player does.
"The reason we held back Johnny Cage is he is a very egotistical guy. He's a scoundrel. He's funny. He's bigger than life... and so is Kano,"
I'm sorry, what ? I mean I like Kano (and the casting choice seems really good for the character) but he is nothing like Johnny Cage at all. Kano is "funny", yes, but not the same kind of humor. Just one tiny different detail, one is an egotistic and selfish guy that wants to prove that "he is the best" (and grows, through pain and loss that there are more important things in life, things that are worth fighting and dying for) and the other one is a maniac, a murderer that does not hesitate to betray his own for profit and has fun doing it. So no, this is bullshit. They are nothing alike, and that is the whole point.
"But you don't understand, he meant that both characters are too important to develop in one movie, and also Kano is already comic relief so we can't have two...". Bullshit, we'll spend two minutes learning who Kano is through cringy dialogues and will probably die after 5 minutes of screentlme. If for some reason you have to pick one between Kano or Johnny for your MK story, in what universe do you go with Kano ?
So we've got time for a brand new character but not for an very well known and established character of 20+ years from the very first game ? Give me a break. Great, now we will have a protagonist that will be not only the dollar equivalent of Johnny Cage, shares the exact same purpose I was describing earlier but also makes Liu Kang pointless since... Well Cole Young is the chosen one now, since he has the MK logo as his birthmark.
I can't fucking believe it, they did the exact same dumb move Paul W.S. Anderson did with his awful Resident Evil adaptation.
I think the best possible quote to summarize Todd Garner's involvement in this project would be : "Who hired this guy ? What the fuck ?"
