Karl Urban in The Boys season 4
By
Ben Gibbons
Published 24 minutes ago
Ben is a Senior Writer on the New TV team at Screen Rant. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class B.A. Degree in English Literature and History.
Born and raised in Ireland, Ben has always had a love for storytelling in all forms of media and operates multiple projects under the name Benjamin Blogs. Ben is a comic book writer and podcast host, in addition to his work as an entertainment journalist. He has worked as both a writer and editor for Screen Rant, Collider, and other media outlets across various departments, including features, news, reviews, and interviews.
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Karl Urban is about to have one of his biggest years of all time in 2026 with incredible new releases and groundbreaking finales. Karl Urban landed his first on-screen credited role back in 1991. Since then, the actor has progressed from minor TV bit parts to feature films and starring roles.
His breakout role came back in 2002 when he played Éomer in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and after that, Urban has picked up major roles in other popular franchises, such as playing Bones McCoy in the rebooted Star Trek films, and Skurge in the MCU's Thor: Ragnarok.
However, Urban is set to have his biggest year yet as a leading man with two major releases in 2026.
Mortal Kombat 2 And The Boys Season 5 Come Out In 2026
Karl Urban as Billy Butcher in The Boys
Karl Urban has had a handful of years in the past where he has had large releases come out in the same year. However, there has never been a year in which he has played such major roles in well-loved franchises, with simultaneous releases set to come out before 2026.
Firstly, Urban is due to return as Billy Butcher in The Boys season 5, a show made for Prime Video which adapts the popular comic book series by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. This season is the final entry in the series and has proven to be incredibly popular as one of the most successful franchises on Prime Video.
But on top of that, Urban will be joining the cast of the Mortal Kombat films for their hotly anticipated sequel, Mortal Kombat II. Despite being a new arrival in the series, Urban's casting assures that he will be front and center in the upcoming film, marking another major role and release for the actor in 2026.
Karl Urban's Johnny Cage Makes Mortal Kombat 2 Way More Exciting
Johnny Cage posing right before a fight in Mortal Kombat 2.
It would be fair to point out that the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was not the biggest success. In general, video game adaptations have struggled intensely at the box office, but the last decade has seen a dramatic shift for some video game franchises and their big-screen adaptations.
Sonic the Hedgehog, The Minecraft Movie, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, have all excelled in theaters, raking in huge sums of money. This suggests that when a movie effectively captures the essence of the source material, fans will get behind it.
Unfortunately, the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie decided to drastically change up the formula from the games, focusing on a brand-new original character and introducing overly complicated narrative structures that took away from the tournament style of the games.
Thankfully, the arrival of Johnny Cage, as played by Karl Urban, proves that this movie is looking to integrate more of the source material, and early details highlight that the focus will be on the gruesome and gory battles that play out in this ultimate fighting competition.
Karl Urban is perfect for this role, not only because of his experience as an actor in action roles, but because he embodies the bravado and confidence of Johnny Cage, which points to this being an incredible and accurate adaptation of an extremely popular franchise.
The Boys Season 5 Will Wrap Up The Story Of Karl Urban's Billy Butcher
Karl Urban as Billy Butcher looking rough in The Boys
Perhaps even more exciting than Karl Urban's debut in the Mortal Kombat franchise, however, is the upcoming conclusion of an already exceedingly popular television series. The Boys began airing back in 2019, and from the start, Urban has been a central part of that journey.
The series follows a terrifying alternate reality where a percentage of the population has developed superpowers, but these flawed and imperfect people now wield these powers over others to make themselves above the law, and essentially indulge their every desire.
This leads to an incredible disparity between ordinary humans and supes, as the supes rarely take accountability for their actions, and they often leave a trail of destruction and chaos in their path. Billy Butcher is one such human whose life was forever changed by supes who took everything he loved and turned his life upside down.
Now, after four seasons of Butcher giving his all to try and bring down the supes, the story is set to finally end in The Boys season 5. With the dramatic finale of The Boys season 4, seeing Butcher on the verge of dying due to his use of Temporary V to gain powers to level the playing field, season 5 is sure to be a wild ride.
Things are going to get intense in The Boys finale, but again, this all comes together to make it one of the most spectacular years of Karl Urban's career, as major projects finally come to the big and small screens.
Evidently, after more than three decades honing his craft and landing increasingly larger and more central roles, it's well-deserved for Karl Urban, and many people, myself included, will be anxious to see how these projects shape up in 2026.
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Karl Urban
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The Boys
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Mortal Kombat II
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