Mehcad Brooks went to a therapist to better understand Jax for Mortal Kombat 2

Following first bringing Jax to life in 2021's Mortal Kombat, Mehcad Brooks is returning to the big screen this May for the follow-up movie, Mortal Kombat 2. This time, Jax plays a bigger role as one of Earthrealm's key protectors and fighters, a role he effortlessly steps into thanks to having his signature metal and robotic arms from the get-go this time around.

With Jax being the version of the character many recognise from the outset in this movie, we inquired with Brooks during a recent interview, about how he went about returning to the role and evolving the character so many are familiar with.

"I actually took the character, Jax, to my therapist," Brooks began. "I wanted to know why he was making the decisions he was making. So for instance, like you're talking about a guy who did six tours in Afghanistan and that wasn't enough, he wants to fight and hunt interdimensional ninjas and monsters. I'm like, hold on... and you have to take that seriously. You have to step into that world and say what motivates that person to do that, right? Why is he there and why is he comfortable doing that? And so we spent some time deciphering and deconstructing his choices and that was really interesting and that actually helped, it informed his fight signature, right? And I played the game a lot and that's where I got his posture from, that's where I got his moves from, like I wanted to move that was the same way that Jax moved in the game and I think in the second movie it was, it felt like second nature for me."

We also inquired similarly about how Lewis Tan went about returning to the role of Cole Young, and how he focussed on "making the fights even crazier and just, you know, really stepping up so we have something iconic at the end of the day."

As Shao Khan himself, Martyn Ford, was also on-hand, we even inquired about how he went about making the character feel authentic and living up to the immense expectations from the fans, despite not having the experience of the prior film to lean on.

"Yeah, it was a great pressure to have, to know there's a fan base who majority of them will probably know the characters more than we do ourselves. But for me there's always a pressure when creating a film, you know, there's a hell of a lot of money that goes into it, there's people's jobs that go into it and as an actor you are responsible for making sure that those people shine. They can do all the work behind the scenes but we ultimately are the ones that have to make them look good as they make us look good at the same time. So there's already that responsibility when you're an actor, but to also have the responsibility to carry the franchise under your belt, it makes sure that, you know, you always do research but here it was especially important to make sure we tried to use all the resources we had."

Check out the full interview with Brooks, Tan, and Ford below.