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Cole Young is a former MMA champion and the main protagonist of the New Line Cinema's 2021 film adaptation of Mortal Kombat and 2025 sequel.
He is portrayed by Lewis Tan, who also played Shatterstar in Deadpool 2 and Gaius Chau in Into the Badlands.
Overview[]
Cole Young is an unfortunate MMA fighter who was born with a Dragon Mark on his chest. He is also recruited by Jax Briggs and Sonya Blade into the Earthrealm warriors. Likewise, it is revealed that he is the center of a prophecy stating that Hanzo Hasashi's bloodline will save Earthrealm.
Biography[]
Invitations were presumably sent to the leaders of various orders and clans with instructions on where to send their best warriors, but the rules of the first tournament also allowed the entry of warriors like Sonya Blade, who stumbled across the tournament by accident while chasing after her nemesis Kano. The tournment addresses this with the idea of Chosen Ones and the distinctive dragon-mark birthmarks which indicate that they are destined to represent Earthrealm in the next Mortal Kombat tournament.
Cole Young is completely ignorant of this as the movie opens, thinking that the mark of the Chosen Ones is an odd birthmark that just happens to resemble a dragon. After Sub-Zero's first attempt to kill Cole and his family, he is rescued by Jax, who has the same dragon mark and tells him to seek out Sonya Blade. It is Sonya who explains the history and purpose of the Mortal Kombat tournaments and sets Cole Young on the path towards his destiny.
After arriving at the Temple of Raiden and beginning the training to discover his inner power and develop the unique supernatural abilities that could only be accessed by a champion of Earthrealm, Raiden explained to a despondent Cole, who was not making any progress in his training, just why he was a Chosen One. Raiden spoke of Hanzo Hasashi, a legendary ninja who died over 400 years earlier at the hands of his rival, Bi-Han, who later became the monster Cole Young knew as Sub-Zero. Rather than being a simple orphan from the south side of Chicago, Cole Young was the last scion of Hanzo Hasashi's bloodline, which Raiden had taken steps to protect after saving Hanzo Hasashi's infant daughter. It is not confirmed that Cole Young is the last surviving member of the bloodline, but it is heavily implied by other events.
Cole's connection to Hanzo Hasashi proved to be the deciding factor in the battle to stop Outworld from gaming the system and killing Earth's champions before the Mortal Kombat tournament could begin in earnest. Before sending the surviving champions off to face the followers of Shang Tsung, Raiden gave Cole the blade of Hanzo Hasashi, which had been used against him to take his life. Raiden explained that Hanzo's spirit would fight with him if he used the weapon in the battle to come. When Sub-Zero sought Cole Young, seeking to end the bloodline of his rival once and for all, Cole Young drew the blade, summoning his ancestor to Earthrealm to fight by his side in his new form as Scorpion.
Powers and Abilities[]
Befitting his upbringing as an orphan on the rough South Side of Chicago, Cole’s initial fighting style manifested as an extremely aggressive style of mixed martial arts that focused on him pounding his opponents into submission. Early on in his fighting career this style paid off, as it allowed him to defeat former MMA champion Eddie Tobias and claim his title. Over the years, however, Cole’s style began to become ineffective as newer opponents began to take advantage of his form’s weaknesses such as its lack of defense and poor battlefield control ability. After training at Raiden’s temple and realizing the fuel to his arcana is in fact his desire to not simply win but to protect others though Cole’s style shifts to incorporate more dodging and blocking as well as moves from Okinawan Kobudō, a martial art that emphasizes weapon usage.
Trivia[]
- Cole is a completely original character in the Mortal Combat series.
- Cole was originally envisioned akin to a Shujinko-like character arc (an oft-used narrative tool of introducing a "newcomer"), facilitating the role of (re-)introducing the story via existing characters, providing the audience a new protagonist experience.
