High kick doyen Jean-Claude Van Damme has been back in the news with his re-enactment of his Kickboxer dance scene during Conan. The appearance clearly caught Mortal Kombat X Creative Director Ed Boon's attention. Following the appearance, he floated the concept of introducing the eighties & nineties action star as an in-game skin:

The idea isn't as silly as it sounds for a couple of reasons. Primarily: Carl Weathers is already slated to join the game as one of the bonus skins included with The Kombat Pack The Rocky & Predator star will "play" Jax, included with playable guest character: Predator.

A body of work that includes films like Bloodsport, The Quest, Street Fighter & Double Impact more than qualifies Van Damme for invitation to the Mortal Kombat tournament, but the ties go deeper. Industry lore has it that Van Damme was considered for a licensing crossover with the game that would become Mortal Kombat. Series co-creator John Tobias explained in an interview with Mortal Kombat Online:

When the game was still merely an idea in our heads, we thought that it would be necessary to attach a license to the project to justify its existence to our management. I believe Roger Sharpe (famous pinball aficionado and historian), who handled Midway's licensing deals at the time, was approached by a movie studio with Van Damme's Universal Soldier film as a possible game tie-in.

We envisioned Van Damme's involvement as a character in our game's story, or as playing himself in the game. That deal didn't pan out and we simply moved on.

Comparisons between Jean-Claude and the similarly initialled MK action star Johnny Cage make it easy to conceive of a JCVD skin. If you aren't quite sold on it, you may want to check out a fan-made Bloodsport/Mortal Kombat mash-up!

Like it? Don't like it? Register to share your thoughts on the Mortal Kombat X forum! Support the site by following and sharing stories via @MK_Online & Facebook.