Some people think that the roster will be just 24 characters, others that it will be like MK9... with the flow of characters "semi-confirmations" and seeing how the story is progressing, I'm honestly beginning to think that the story will end up featuring even more playable characters. Here is why:

- We already have 12 confirmed characters (11 if you count Goro as DLC).

- We have a lot of characters that while not confirmed, have a foot and a half here already: Takeda (a lot of focus in the comic), Mileena and Shang Tsung (Gamespot supposed leak?), the guys from the web series casting and even the recent mister Black (you don't put that much personallity and details on a character that is going to die in the comic). Fujin seems to have taken some sort of advisor position for Raiden. Ermac has been hinted at a lot plus he now has a huge lot of story potential with the Jerrod thing. Oh, and "bowman" too I guess.

- For the first story arc (when the next generation of young fighters can't be here to fight), you need bodies in the side of earhrealm, which means that at least Raiden, Johnny, Sonya and possibly Kenshi (who is supposed to be part of the events that allows Hanzo to take control over his rage), if not even more characters as Raiden plus 3 guys doesn't seem to be enough to resist an invasion (Raiden's non canon ending talked about 4 selected warriors).

- The forces of netherealm need bodies to present a threat for the first story arc. Right now they have Quan Chi and 3 revenants from the Sindel massacre: Sub-Zero, Kitana and Kung Lao. But that's far from enough to be a threat (and it could be said that's all Quan Chi as the other 3 are under his control and the leader is supposed to be Shinnokh). You could add Scorpion to the picture too (also under Quan Chi's control) and Noob is at least referenced by Quan Chi to mock Sub-Zero about how easily succumbed his brother and in a different dialogue about still having his soul (which means if he's in it's another Quan Chi minion instead of loyal to Shinnokh).

I think we would have to see some characters from the Shadow Brotherhood, either old (Reiko, Sareena, Ashrah) or new to have a real sense of threat from the netherealm, and we could end up with even more playable revenants than just those 3 guys.

Even if MK4 originally didn't have many characters supporting the netherealm (Reiko, Tanya, Quan Chi and Shinnokh and Reptile who I think will be in Outworld this time), with the new format of telling the story, you need more characters to provide some fights for each chapter.

- If the story is going to touch the outworld civil war story arc (and it has been mentioned to cover Kotal's rise and fall), we need playable characters on his side (this could be covered with Kotal himself, Ferra/Torr, D'Vorah, Reptile and the unconfirmed mister Black) but also opponents for their story mode fights, which means Mileena needs some allies, either from Outworld or even linking this story with the netherealm invasion (they could send Reiko there as they would prefer Mileena as their ally and manipulate her, maybe Reiko ends up playing his own game).

Maybe some netherealm characters and revenants allied with Mileena could be the opponents for Kotal Kahn's forces during their story arc (though this was is supposed to happen after Quan Chi loses control of the revenants).

- Those 2 arcs are only the first phases of the story and from earthrealm you haven't even added the next generation of fighters yet!! Granted that from this point a lot of characters from the other 2 arcs can be used again on different conflicts, but story developement will need even more threats for them to face after the dust from the netherealm invasion and the outworld civil war is settled.

- There are also some stories that we don't know if will be just in the comic or we will see for ourselves. For example, if Sub-Zero is going to become grandmaster of the Lin Kuei DURING the game rather than the comic, you then need at least Cyrax and Sektor to fight him or he will just walk in and smash NPCs.

Kitana and more edenian characters (Jerrod/Ermac, Sindel, Tanya...) could be featured in some story arc trying to bring back Edenia.

I'm not even talking about background characters, I'm talking about the need of characters to play as and to be fought given the kind of story that they want to tell, added to the roster that we already have.

I'm starting to feel like 30 characters aren't even enough to tell that story, so my hopes for enough character spots for personal favorites being compatible with other people's favorites are skyrocketing right now.

And I didn't even mention the Red Dragon that is supposed to be allied with both netherealm and Mileena.