He’s fought orcs from horseback in Middle-earth, explored the final frontier on the Starship Enterprise, and wielded dual machine guns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but now Karl Urban is really in the thick of it. This May, he leads one of the first blockbusters of the summer as martial artist Johnny Cage in the video game movie sequel Mortal Kombat II, and he’s back for one last round as grizzled superhero slayer Billy Butcher in the final season of the raunchy spoof The Boys. That Urban is the lead of two of the biggest titles in geeky pop culture in the same month is a result of scheduling happensance—Mortal Kombat II was originally supposed to come out last year. Even so, the coincidence feels like an anointing, long overdue for someone who has spent decades in just about every beloved franchise, quietly establishing himself as the most important—or at least prolific—person in genre entertainment.
“What makes Karl so special is that he is a fan first,” says his Star Trek co-star Chris Pine. “There is very much the little boy about him endlessly excited by the opportunity to play make-believe in stories that he himself loves.”
Yet when I present the idea that he’s worthy of some kind of geek royalty crown to Urban, during a lunch break for one of his two concurrent press circuits, his reaction is unexpected.
“Uncomfortable,” the 53-year-old actor says after a thoughtful pause, placing a hand on my arm. “It makes me uncomfortable. Here’s the thing: People are always trying to put you into a box.” His ascent to the peak of Geek Mountain would be, as Urban admits, “a tidy narrative.” And it’s not that he has anything but enthusiasm for his various franchise roles and their fandoms—he wouldn’t have gotten this far if he’d been faking it. He’s just trying to take a more expansive view. “I feel like it’s always my job to try and escape that box.”
As a kid in Wellington, New Zealand, in the ’70s and ’80s, Urban’s love of cinema grew from proximity; his mother worked at a film production company. Sure, he liked Star Wars and Indiana Jones as much as any boy might, but it’s films like Cool Hand Luke and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that he recalls more passionately. Frankly, though, he preferred to spend his days getting into trouble outside.
When he started acting professionally, after dabbling on the stage throughout his school days, he took what he could find. His early credits include Kiwi soap operas and a medical drama. “Coming from New Zealand, you don’t have the luxury of choice. You have to work in theater, film, television, radio, whatever you can,” he explains. In the mid-1990s, the sword-and-sorcery TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess came to New Zealand, drawn by low production costs and stunning natural beauty that could stand in for ancient Greece. “They offered a level of production and a level of employment that we hadn’t really had in New Zealand,” Urban recalls. “A lot of actors played two or three roles. I was certainly one.”
Urban hadn’t spent his childhood waiting to play a fantasy version of Julius Caesar or Cupid, but he fit right into that world. His foray into genre continued when fellow Kiwi Peter Jackson helmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early aughts. The local Xena crew and cast had experience in the genre, so Jackson took advantage. Urban was cast as Éomer, leader of the Riders of Rohan, in the second and third movies. “I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for them,” he says.
Handsome but with enough ruggedness that he looked at home in any number of strange worlds or action sequences, Urban stuck with genre fare once he left Middle-earth. There was plenty of work to be found there, a trend he credits Star Wars for kicking off. (That’s a franchise he’s technically been a part of, too, thanks to a voice cameo as a Stormtrooper in The Rise of Skywalker.) He ventured beyond fantasy into sci-fi (The Chronicles of Riddick) and spy thrillers (The Bourne Supremacy).
Since then, you can almost track the development of pop culture throughout the 21st century by following Urban’s filmography. He was perhaps too early on the video game adaptation trend with the much-maligned 2006 Doom, opposite Dwayne Johnson. (“Doom tried,” Urban says. “There was the first-person shooter sequence, which looks great to this day. Other aspects of the film… not so much.”) He took part in a successful sci-fi reboot as Leonard “Bones” McCoy in three Star Trek movies; appeared in one of the better Disney live-action remakes (2016’s Pete’s Dragon); and played an MCU antihero in Thor: Ragnarok.
In all of these films, Urban is consistently memorable, neatly fitting into whatever fiction. It’s not necessarily because he’s a huge fan. Although Pine, Captain Kirk himself, says he clocked Urban as the biggest Trekkie of their cast, Urban doesn’t see it that way. He says he was just a little older and therefore more familiar with and fond of The Original Series. He has dear memories of watching Star Trek with his father, but he took the gig over an opportunity to play X-Men villain Sabertooth in a Wolverine movie in part because had a young family and he “put his business hat on.” Trek, he figured, would go on for three pictures (and it did).
Fans of the 2012 cult classic Dredd should be pleased to know that Urban does say he was especially excited to play the dystopian mega-city cop, having gotten into the comics in his youth working at a Wellington pizza parlor. That’s an exception, not a rule, for Urban. He didn’t conquer genre by being the most die-hard geek, but by being a professional.
“Genre filmmakers are grabbing Karl because guys like that don’t grow on trees. Those are real unicorns,” The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke says. Urban, he says, gave The Boys instant legitimacy. “Then I realized how committed he is to the character. The questions he was asking. I knew it was gonna be fun to work with him.”
With The Boys ending as Mortal Kombat II hits theaters, Urban’s doing a one-man baton pass as Hollywood turns from superheroes to video games as the next big adaptational rush (see also: Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Sonic, Minecraft). Urban shrugs off these big picture readings: “Hollywood has always pulled from as many different IPs as they can. Whether it’s a comic book, a news article, a video game. The important thing is, ‘OK, so you have an idea. But what’s the story you’re telling?’”
It’s this approach that’s helped Urban excel. He’s not a gamer, and his first real exposure to Mortal Kombat was through his two sons, who implored him not to ” f-ck it up” when he announced he’d been cast as Johnny Cage. He went to karate tournaments to watch how competitors handled victory and defeat. He unlocked pathos in a character who can come across as something of a joke in the games, portraying him as a talented competitor who must reconnect with his passion and leave his showbiz aspirations behind to save the world. Then came time to learn the moves himself. “I had an exponential crash course in martial arts,” he says, conceding that he felt his age a bit. “That’s where you get the best results, when you are slightly out of your depth. When your feet can’t touch the bottom of the pool.”
Despite—or perhaps because of—his huge year, Urban’s not looking for another iconic character to play or famous franchise to headline. “I’m at the point where the runway is clear. I’m more certain about what I don’t want to do than what I do,” he says.
The Boys’ popularity caught everyone by surprise: The Prime Video series was the first non-Netflix show to crack Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Shows; its second season beat out Stranger Things. While he laments bidding farewell to the people, the contractual obligations of the show took up most of his time for the better part of a decade. He’s excited to have the space to do indie films or work with young filmmakers on a lower budget. This isn’t a rejection of the franchises that carried him to this peak—Urban says he at least hopes he gets to play Johnny Cage again in a third Mortal Kombat.
“I am not worried about Karl Urban,” Kripke says of his now-former leading man. “My guess is he’s gonna be able to do whatever he finds intriguing.” Urban is not quite sure what that will look like yet, but his barometer is simple. “I want to look for projects we’re both going to enjoy,” Urban says, hoping audiences come along wherever he goes. ”I’m gonna enjoy making it. You’re going to enjoy watching it.”
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