Before he landed the lead role in Mortal Kombat, Lewis Tan was one of the actors in contention to play the title character in Marvel's Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, and the actor has now spoken about how disappointed he was to lose the part.
While speaking to ET, Tan revealed that he was being considered for Shang-Chi, but found out that Simu Liu would actually be stepping into the role of the Master of Martial Arts while he was on a flight to Japan.
"I just lost a crazy job - a really, really high-caliber level job," recalls the actor. "And I heard that news on a plane to Japan and I was, like, devastated."
Disappointment soon turned to elation, however, as it wasn't long after this he got the news that he'd be playing Cole Young in the Mortal Kombat reboot.
"I did this mediation course, and I came back and then I was on my way to Nashville, Tennessee, to race cars at NASCAR -- I was like, 'Maybe I'm the first Asian person to ever be in this place before!' -- and all of a sudden I get a phone call saying I got the role in [Mortal Kombat], I was supposed to drive a car that day and I ended up not doing it because I was like, 'Uh oh! I need to be safe now because I've got an opportunity here.'"
In related news, a brief new clip from Mortal Kombat has found its way online following the movie's premiere in Thailand. This means first reactions - and spoilers - will likely be doing the rounds pretty soon, so keep an eye out.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.