LogFAQs > #927781184

One thing that's funny about the original Mortal Kombat movie is that you'd only need to change two things to make Johnny Cage the star of the movie:

1) Liu Kang joins the tournament out of obligation to the Shaolin Temple rather than to avenge someone close to him.
2) Johnny Cage fights Shang Tsung at the end.

Jean Claude Van Damme was originally meant to play Johnny Cage, but opted instead to star in Street Fighter so that he could be the central protagonist. It wouldn't have taken much alteration to the plot to have accommodated him. That said, it's for the best that Liu Kang was the star. But it's funny to think that Cage is completely absent when he could have easily as not been the star of the original.