Warner Bros. took to New York Comic-Con on Saturday to unveil a new trailer, behind-the-scenes video, and a brand new clip from their highly-anticipated Mortal Kombat II, which includes a sH๏τ that old-school gamers will absolutely love. The sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat was originally supposed to hit theaters on October 24, but it was ultimately pushed to May 15, 2026.
The studio helped ease the blow of such a huge release delay by bringing the action-packed sequel to NYCC with a panel that featured stars Karl Urban (Johnny Cage), Adeline Rudolph (Kitana), Tati Gabrielle (Jade), and Martyn Ford (Shao Khan), plus director Simon McQuoid and writer Jeremy Slater, who was confirmed at the panel to be writing a third Mortal Kombat movie.
Screen Rant was in attendance for the panel, which ended with the clip and trailer, neither of which have been released online at this moment. The clip featured a new look at Urban’s Johnny Cage, confirming one of the character’s signature moves dating all the way back to the first Mortal Kombat game that debuted in 1992.
The Johnny Cage Nutcracker Punch Was Revealed In New NYCC Footage
The scene in question features Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) approaching Baraka (CJ Bloomfield) to join the Earthrealm in fighting the nefarious Shao Khan, though Baraka refuses, citing the Earthrealm’s lack of a proper army. Johnny Cage steps in and tries to goad Baraka into fighting Kang, calling him a coward if he doesn’t, but it backfires: Baraka now wants to fight Cage.
Johnny and his allies — Liu Kang, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) — agree he’s not ready for a fight, joking, “Yeah, you’re gonna die.” Johnny stumbles through the first part of the fight, but that all changes when he’s knocked down, sending his sunglᴀsses flying. Sonya urges him on by saying, “You’re an actor, so act.”
This leads into the trailer moment when Johnny puts on his shades, as he turns the fight around, ultimately getting the upper hand against Baraka before finishing him off by pulling off a perfectly-executed Nutcracker punch, where he does the splits and punches Baraka in the crotch.
The final sH๏τ of the clip gave way to a raucous ovation from the NYCC crowd, though it’s unclear when the full clip with the Nutcracker sH๏τ will be released online.
The Famous Johnny Cage Nutcracker
Anyone who has played Mortal Kombat with any degree of regularity knows that Johnny Cage — who in the game is a world-famous actor and fights with sunglᴀsses on — has an iconic move throughout the game series. While it doesn’t have one name in the games, it’s been referred to as the “Nutcracker,” the “Nut Punch” or the “Split Punch.”
The move shows off not only Cage’s flexibility, but his often crᴀss nature: he drops into a full split, while punching his opponent square in the crotch. The move is both humorous and effective in the game. Both the Johnny Cage character and the move are famously modeled after another actor with a penchant for the splits: Jean-Claude Van Damme.
It is believed that the Nutcracker move itself is derived from a scene in Bloodsport, where JCVD’s Frank Dux drops into the splits and thrusts a fist into his opponent’s nether regions.
It remains to be seen if Baraka is the sole victim of Johnny Cage’s Nutcracker punch in the highly-anticipated Mortal Kombat II, but we’ll find out for sure when it hits theaters next summer.
