What Terry Crews Could Have Looked Like As Mortal Kombat's Jax

With its rich mythology, outlandish cast of characters, and famously liberal attitude on blood and gore, the Mortal Kombat franchise has been basically begging for a no-holds-barred movie — and when the trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie dropped, it was clear that the makers fully intend to blow the considerably more family-friendly cinematic installments of yesteryear out of the water and into the famous Pit. One of the movie's main fighters — sorry, kombatants – is Jax Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), who starts his journey on a sour note when he loses his arms in a frosty confrontation with the cryomancer ninja Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). Instead of spending the rest of the movie in the infirmary, though, it appears that the movie version of Jax follows the game counterpart's story and returns to the fray with brand-new, ultra-powerful cybernetic appendages. 

Based on what we've seen so far, there's little question that Brooks is an excellent fit in the role. However, purely in the interest of fan casting, it's tempting to entertain other versions of character. For instance, have you ever wondered what Terry Crews could have looked like as Mortal Kombat's Jax? 

Mighty as Terry Crews is, his roles in The Expendables franchise and Brooklyn Nine-Nine always bring his comedic, lighthearted side in the mix. Not so with this image of Crews as a very businesslike and gruesome Jax. Created by Twitter user BossLogic, this version of the character has a very fitting military vibe to him, with his dog tags and the stars-and-stripes theme of his cybernetic arms. The arms themselves are fairly realistic affairs, too, with steaming cooling vents and fully visible — and hopefully extremely reinforced — hydraulic lines. The jagged, grimy way they've been attached to his torso makes it clear that however this version of the character lost his original arms, it wasn't nice, and the replacements were attached in a hurry. 

To befit the bloody nature of the Mortal Kombat franchise, Crews-Jax also has numerous nasty-looking scars and cuts in his face and body, which, combined with the steaming arms, makes it seem like he's not exactly a newcomer to the tournament. All in all, it's a pretty cool take on a pretty cool character!