Mortal Kombat at Comic Con Liverpool 2026: Hall 1B

Comic Con Liverpool 2026 brought the original Mortal Kombat back into focus on Saturday 10 October, when Linden Ashby appeared in Hall 1B to discuss the 1995 film. According to the on-site account supplied for this report, Christopher Lambert and Robin Shou were also at the convention, but Linden Ashby was the only member of the film’s cast on stage for this session. The distinction matters: this was a tribute centred on the actor behind Johnny Cage, rather than a three-person cast reunion.

The session formed part of the convention’s 10–11 October edition at Liverpool’s waterfront event campus. The official venue listing confirms a weekend spanning the convention centre, exhibition centre, arena and auditorium, with celebrity appearances, live panels, gaming, cosplay and traders. Within that broader programme, Mortal Kombat offered a focused connection to a film released 31 years earlier, whose combination of martial arts and comic bravado still gives its performers plenty to discuss.

Why Johnny Cage remains central to the 1995 film

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, Mortal Kombat adapted the fighting-game franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Its tournament gives three very different heroes a shared task: protect Earth from conquest. Robin Shou plays Liu Kang, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras plays Sonya Blade, and Linden Ashby supplies the Hollywood swagger of Johnny Cage. Christopher Lambert appears as their supernatural guide, Raiden, while Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa plays the tournament’s sinister host, Shang Tsung.

As a character, Johnny Cage offers a particularly useful way into this fantastical world. He arrives with an actor’s concern for his reputation and encounters dangers that cannot be dismissed as movie effects. His humour gives the audience a recognisable human response to the extraordinary. In critical terms, that contrast helps explain the performance’s staying power: the jokes allow the fantasy to feel playful, while the fights require the character to earn his place alongside the other heroes.

Verified filming anecdotes behind Mortal Kombat’s fights

Previously published interviews provide useful context for the Liverpool tribute, although they should not be mistaken for statements made during the Hall 1B session. One revealing account concerns the late addition of two action sequences. In a 2017 interview with Kung-fu Kingdom, Keith Cooke recalled that the producers wanted more substantial fights after principal photography. Robin Shou contacted him about the Reptile battle, and sets were built in an aircraft hangar at Van Nuys Airport for that sequence and the Scorpion fight involving Chris Casamassa.

The detail is a reminder that some of a film’s defining material can emerge during additional photography. Keith Cooke said his fight with Robin Shou took six days to shoot, with time to develop the choreography and incorporate ideas. For viewers revisiting Mortal Kombat, those production circumstances offer a fresh way to watch its action: the encounters were shaped through collaboration and revision, rather than simply transferring a game’s moves directly to the screen.

The physical cost was real. Looper’s retrospective, drawing on earlier interviews with The Hollywood Reporter, recounts how Linden Ashby suffered a bruised kidney when a kick from Chris Casamassa struck an area his padding did not cover. It also describes Robin Shou fracturing two ribs during the Reptile sequence and continuing before seeking hospital treatment. These are documented production recollections, not newly disclosed Liverpool anecdotes, and they underline the demanding work behind the film’s apparently effortless exchanges.

Mortal Kombat’s box office and lasting audience appeal

Released in the United States on 18 August 1995 by New Line Cinema, Mortal Kombat opened with $23,283,887 domestically. Box Office Mojo records a domestic total of $70,454,098 and an international total of $51,741,822, giving a worldwide gross of $122,195,920. Its American classification was PG-13, and its running time was 101 minutes.

The film’s appeal is also worth separating from its initial critical reception. The Rotten Tomatoes retrospective notes that it held the domestic box-office lead for three weekends despite divided reviews. Its achievement lay partly in making a recognisable screen adventure from a game associated with extreme violence, while working within a more accessible rating. The tournament, contrasting personalities and energetic fights supplied a clear structure that audiences could follow whether or not they already knew the arcade original.

How the original movie cast returned to the games

The film’s continuing connection to the franchise is more than a matter of convention nostalgia. Warner Bros. Games confirms that Mortal Kombat 11’s Klassic MK Movie Skin Pack includes the voices and likenesses of Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage, Christopher Lambert as Raiden and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras as Sonya Blade. Released on 24 November 2020, the pack brought those screen interpretations into the playable game itself. [

That return gives the Hall 1B tribute an additional dimension. A film originally adapted from a game later supplied performances that the games chose to preserve. The exchange suggests why these actors remain relevant to the series’ identity: their versions became recognisable enough to revisit in another medium. In Liverpool, the presence of Linden Ashby connected that continuing relationship to the original production, with Johnny Cage providing the link between the 1995 adventure and the fans still celebrating it.

Event recap: Mortal Kombat tribute in Hall 1B

Mortal Kombat tribute with Linden Ashby.
Where : United Kingdom, Liverpool, Liverpool Experience Campus, King's Dock, 16 Monarchs Quay, Halls 1B
When : Saturday 10 October 2026.
What : A session about the 1995 Mortal Kombat film, with Linden Ashby as the sole cast member on stage, according to the supplied on-site account.

You can discover our photos in our Flickr page

Photos: @fannyrlphotography / Mulderville