yeah now that i think about it i think 28 is a good number to start out with with 4-6 unlockables, which i know they going to have unlockables since it is mortal kombat after all,to a total of possibe 36 is awesome

Might want to check your math. And that sounds a bit high for roster number with 3 variations.

I am still rolling the dice with my theory that post umk3 characters will be omitted from this MK. Besides the story driven character's like Shinnok, Quan, Kenshi, fujin

Thats def not high and those variations are an excuse for not having more kharacters. All they are is a few extra moves for each kharacters and a slightly different look. Bottom line is 24 kharacters is a joke when half are new.

I think we will see a roster of 28 one being a console exclusive. This makes 27 MK characters available and according to the interview there will be more new ones than old. So im thinking 14 new characters 13 old ones. So along with Kotal, D'Vorah, Ferra Torr, and Cassie, we'll see 10 new characters. That would mean only 9 old slots are available.

Johnny Cage or Sonya
Sektor or Cyrax
Ermac
Reptile
Quan Chi
Liu Kang
Fujin
Kenshi
Kai (I hope but its too hard to think who else)or Tanya or Shinnok

Ok so I don't think both Cassies parents will be in but the way Boon is talking they may be. Hopefully we see a roster if thirty with 14 old 15 new and an exclusive. Anyways for the cyborgs I feel we'll see Cyrax as a Special forcrs member. As for DLC I think we will get more than injustice and I think there will be about 8 DLC characters

Kung Lao
Smoke
Bo' Rai' Cho
Guest

Sektor or Cyrax (one who didnt make it)
Kitana
Noob
Shang Tsung

I think we'll have a 3rd row n the.middle 4 will b part of the initial roster to=28 n 4 on both sides will be dlc

36 is way too high. 28- 30 is more like it.

I was saying check the math because 28 +6 = 34 not 36. Either way too much. MAYBE 36 with DLC but probably closer to 34 tops

It is unclear to me if the guest character will be in the starting roster or Dlc. And I am not sure either if there will be just one.... After all mk9 had two guests, one being console exclusive.


MK9 had 28 starting characters and Ed said that MKX roster will be AT LEAST this huge, if not slightly bigger.

I assume that 30 starting characters is a good number, plus 5/6 Dlc characters.

I think they will release at least 8 kharacters as DLC cuz they know that ppl will pay for the klassic kharacters. They have wayy too much NEW stuff in this game,I like the new stuff but Id still like to see the klassics get this upgrade too.

I think they would be stupid not to this time around. DLC made them money for mk9. And with many fan favorites most likely sitting out they would benefit greatly from having a large turn out of dlc.


^^I think the guest character will be dlc. They made the most on Freddy last time around so wouldnt they want to stick a cash cow in dlc again?

I personally hope they do it this way because I hate the idea of having guest characters. =]

I am going to say 36. I've been saying 3 rows of 12 for a while now.

28-30 main roster spots. That leaves 6-8 DLC. I will go ahead and assume this as well. Skarlet was placed as a cameo in storymode. Seeing that, I think we could see some of the MK4-MKA cast get some characterization IN the storymode. Then later be revealed as DLC. After all, they are going to have to refresh the audience on who some of these characters are. I could see a Li Mei as DLC. Possibly a Kai as well. Plus some of the heroes that died in MK9 will be DLC as well.

Considering how they're building each character in this game, I'd be a bit surprised if we got more than 30 characters total, and that's including DLC.

Starting at 30:

DLC guesses:

-Sonya Blade - Heavily rumored right now. I say she starts in story mode as an NPC and then comes out this way.

-Johnny Cage - Same as Sonya.

-Noob - Too much love for this character not to come back, and tons of fans would have no problems paying for him.

-Quan Chi - While something tells me he's the next character to get introduced, I'm going to go against the grain and guess big story mode presence as an NPC, then going to DLC.

-Mileena - An MK icon. Thought about Kitana, but went the safe route with MKs resident sex appeal. Another possible regular cast character.

- Guest: Jago from KI on Xbox One, Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal on PS4

Down to 24.

Minus 8 confirmed.

Down to 16.

I'm thinking an even split. Eight new and eight old.

New guesses:

-Woman from Jade's Ending
-Tremor
-New Vampire
-New Outworld Species Character
-New Brotherhood of Shadows Character
-New Sorcerer Character
-New God Character
-New Martial Artist Hero Character

Returning:

-Ermac - Insanely popular character. Plus Boon keeps tweeting Ermac art. I could easily see him as the next reveal.

-Reptile - Not quite as popular as Ermac, but still a fan favorite, and Boon also tweets Reptile art a lot.

-Bo Rai Cho - Boon tweets about him every so often and never deconfirms him. Plus I think he'll have a role to play in mentoring the new chosen one.

-Shinnok - You can't have the MK9 ending and just leave him out. I could definitely see him as a playable sub boss.

-Sareena - Wild shot in the dark, but she could fit in to multiple stories and she certainly has a fan following. I think / hope that this is when she finally gets her chance.

-Baraka - Maybe wishful thinking, but he's a lackey that always seems to latch on to whoever is in power. Plus, with so many new characters, he's a nice, old school familiar face.

-Liu Kang - I think he's more of a surprise return and I think they totally rework him. I'm thinking full on fire god, though I'm sure he'd have a classic variation. I could see him guiding the new chosen one.

-Skarlett - Another left field pick, but with no female ninjas (that aren't ninjas) on the main roster, I could see master-less Skarlett getting a chance to shine.

My guess is....

Scorpion
Sub-Zero
Raiden
Kano
Cassie Cage
D'Vorah
Kotal Kahn
Ferra & Torr

Returning:

- Reptile
- Ermac
- Quan Chi
- Sareena/Kitana/Mileena/Skarlet
- Cyrax/Sektor
- Liu Kang
- Baraka
- Kenshi
- Rain
- Fujin/Tanya/Kai/Reiko
- Shinnok

New:
- New sorcerer (good) - like Nightwolf but different magic like a druid's
- New soldier
- New monk - either shaolin or tibet
- New Outworld warrior

I agree with...

Reptile (or new saurian)
Ermac
Quan Chi
Shinnok

For the rest of returning...

Sareena or Mileena
Jax or Demon Smoke ( instead of Cyrax/Sektor)
Hydro (Rain is confirmed out)
Fujin
Tanya
Bo Rai Cho/Havik

Shinnok, Quan Chi and Liu Kang: possible candidates for boss/sub-boss(es).

Since Kung Lao or Kabal or Smoke probably aren't coming back, I'm just crossing my fingers for Havik.

Kung Lao should come back, but, as an undead from the Netherrealm.

Okay, let's do this shit scientifically.

ROSTER SIZE

-Ed says we get a roster of comparable size to MK9, and the row-style select screen seems to be here to stay, so an even number is far more likely than an odd number. Bearing in mind that and that NRS will likely pursue the same aggressive DLC style as in MK9 and IGAU, I'm gonna plump for 28 characters on release, 6 DLC for a grand total of 34

-Ed has confirmed that we'll have more new characters than ever but I'm not sure if he's sat done and done the exact maths on this. Regardless, I'll operate on a 14/14 split. I'm not sure it'll actually be 14/14 but I'm positive it'll be in and around, in between 16/12 and 12/16, so the I think it makes sense to operate on a 14/14 split.

-I don't think the only returning characters will be the 7 from the first MK: You'd need 20+ new characters and I just don't think thats likely. It also ignores characters who are popular and whose story could be taken further like Mileena, Baraka and Ermac.

QUICK STORY PREDICTION:
-I think its important to set out some idea of what I think is gonna happen with the story in order to justify some of the roster choices, particularly returning characters and to add some some structure and guidance for me.

-MK9 had 16 chapters: 5 in MK1, 6 in MK2 and 5 in MK3. IGAU had 12 chapters. I think MKX will have 14.

-I'm not going to pretend that I have any real insight or idea what direction NRS are taking the story. All I know and all any of us know is that it mainly concerns the rise and fall of Kotal.

-However, NRS has to, in some way, deal with Quan Chi and Shinnok. They could deal with it in flashback but that would be so unbelievably cheap and frustrating. Furthermore, we know that the story will occur in 4 segments: 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and 25 years.

-My prediction in that regard is: 5 years: Shinnok/Quan Chi. Chapters are 1: Johnny or Sonya: introduction and maybe a 'warm up' against someone and a couple of fights against Outworld characters before Raiden points out that its Outworld and Earthrealm against Shinnok. 2: Outworld character fighting against Shinnok and Outworld characters who sided with Shinnok. 3: Scorpion who discovers about Quan Chi and fucking finally kills that guy, but still believes that the Lin Kuei are guilty in some way. Alternatively, he may stop blaming the Lin Kuei and disappear from the story for a while and the intro we saw is just early story Scorpion. I really have no idea who fights who in general however.

-10 years: Rise of Kotal Kahn in Outworld. I expect this to be a power struggle part of the story, between the two main factions in Outworld: the remnants of Shao Kahn's forces and Kotal Kahn's forces. I think this will mainly be new characters and old Outworld characters: I expect D'Vorah and Kotal himself to have chapters, killing some of the old Outworld characters (namely, in my opinion, Mileena). Ermac has Jerrod awoken and decides to escape to Earthrealm. Overall I expect there to be four chapters here, ending with Kotal assuming supreme control of Outworld. I really have no idea who fights who in general however.

-15 years: I'm not really sure what's gonna happen here. I suspect this is where Sub Zero will have his chapter and we'll find out what his deal is and what's been going on with Earthrealm in regards to the Lin Kuei and the Black Dragon: I suspect Kano kills Sonya here and we see Liu Kang come back. Overall, I expect three chapters, one dealing with the Lin Kuei, another with Sonya/Kano and something to do with the new Earthrealm heroes.

-25 years: the end of Kotal Kahn. I think Raiden will preemptively strike at Kotal before he gets his shit fully together: I expect chapters for Liu Kang (acting on his own, don't think he'll follow Raiden's lead), Cassie kills Kano, a new/returning hero and Raiden kills Kotal Kahn.

RETURNING CHARACTERS
1: Scorpion
2: Sub Zero
3: Raiden
4: Kano
5: Johnny Cage/Sonya Blade (all but confirmed)
6: Liu Kang (heavily hinted at)

So that's half the returning characters done. Whichever returning characters do come back, we absolutely have to remember that NRS picks the roster and works the roster into the story. So the characters that would make the most story sense won't necesarily be the ones who make a comeback. I do think that the new characters will take the lead in the story, with the exception of Raiden and Liu Kang and so I think the returning characters will mainly be killed off or take backseat roles.

People who are expecting a lot of revamps from the 3d era will be disappointed I think. I'm not saying that Tanya, Reiko, Havik and Hotaru won't be in and while it'd make sense for Havik to side with Raiden to stop the rise of Kotal and Hotaru to side with Kotal, and Reiko to be killed off by Kotal with Tanya.....doing something. But I just don't think we'll see all of them.

Hotaru is a damn cool character in my book but I just don't think this is the game to expand properly into Seido, similarly for Havik and Chaosrealm. Reiko could definitely be in Kotal Kahn's section and I'd like to see him revamped, if they made Kano that cool they could do the same with Reiko. I just don't see it happening, considering the new characters they want to introduce.

I think we'll see Tanya and Fujin back: Tanya is very popular for a 3d character and devious enough to slide into any evil set up and we know Fujin is on their mind. I'll put a caveat and say that I think it's either Tanya or Reiko. I'd prefer Reiko but I expect Tanya

So for returning I'll say
7: Fujin
8: Tanya/Reiko

9: Quan Chi, has to come back lets be honest
10: Shinnok, not his biggest fan but I'll be unspeakably irritated if NRS just gloss over his invasion
11: Mileena, to die in the power struggle
12: Ermac, popular character and could come in
13: One of Cyrax/Sektor, for the Lin Kuei
14: Kitana. I don't know how or why but with Ed's comment about how no one ever really dies in MK and how popular Kitana is, I could definitely see her returning.

Now that I look back on that prediction, I'm kind of expecting more dead characters to come back in Story Mode but I think my above prediction is fairly realistic.

NEW CHARACTERS:
1: Ferra/Torr
2: Kotal Kahn
3: Cassie Cage
4: D'Vorah
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:

-I don't really see any point in predicting new characters: we know that NRS picks the roster first and later figures out how they fit into the story so I don't really think that you can extrapolate the info we know about the story (concerning Kotal and presumably NRS HAVE to deal with Shinnok/Quan Chi in some way).

- I expect some characters to be punching bags

DLC
-I don't think that we'll get many, if any, new characters via DLC. DLC is, primarily, a moneymaking feature and a very successful one: witness Boon frequently referring to how well the DLC for IGAU and MK9 sold
-Boon has repeatedly noted that the guest characters sold the best in both games: Freddy in MK9 and Scorpion in IGAU. Therefore, I think the guest will probably be DLC: possibly even day one DLC.

-The guest could really be anyone.

-I think a KI character makes perfect sense for XBO however: with Season 2 of KI coming up, cross promotion makes perfect sense. Rage have said they'd be open to guest characters in Season 3 so you could see an MK character, likely Scorpion or Sub Zero, there. On the sole merits of KI, Orchid or Fulgore are the most likely, but bearing Season 2 in mind, I'll say Riptor or Cinder.

-As far as PS4 goes, Kratos won't be coming back and there's no opportunity for cross-promotion with any fighing game. The only upcoming major fighting games for PS4 are Tekken 7 and likely a Street Fighter port: a guest from either is very unlikely, as much as I think Akuma and Devil Jin would fit in MK quite well. Therefore, I reckon Sweet Tooth is the only real option, but even then, there's no upcoming Twisted Metal game. A Xenomorph could be done for cross promotion but that would likely be on both consoles.

-Bearing in mind that DLC is a moneymaking process, NRS will want to sell characters with maximum recognition on DLC: Kenshi the most popular character from the 3d era, Rain to complete MKT, Freddy a horror icon, Skarlet wearing the least amount of clothes possible, as well as a red female ninja. Therefore, I think NRS will release DLC characters based on who they think will sell best, on classic characters.

-Luckily, there is quite a selection of dead classic characters to choose from. Going on characters who are definitively dead in MK9 story mode (with the caveat being Boon confirming that death isnt really death in MK), the likely selection for the DLC is: Shang Tsung, Kitana, Jade, Smoke, Jax, Kung Lao, Kabal, CSZ, Nightwolf, Noob, Sindel . The highest selling characters from there would probably be Shang, Kitana, Kung Lao, Smoke. I think Kitana will be in the main roster and I think Shang will sit this one out so I reckon the three DLC characters will be: Kung Lao, Smoke and Jax. I wouldn't be surprised to see CSZ as a skin for SZ though.
-As for the last two spots, I'm unsure. I suspect they'll be more classic characters but I'll leave them open. I suspect we won't see one of Cyrax or Sektor in the main game so it could be one of them. I think one of Johnny or Sonya will be an NPC in story so one of them is likely: I think Kano kills Sonya in story so I'll go with Sonya as DLC.

-So my DLC prediction: Guest, Sonya, Kung Lao, Smoke, Jax, Cyrax/Sektor

OVERALL PREDICTION
1: Scorpion (100%)
2: Sub Zero (100%)
3: Raiden(100%)
4: Kano (100%)
5: Johnny Cage/Sonya Blade (95%)
6: Liu Kang (beat story mode unlockable) (80%)
7: Fujin (unlockable) (40%)
8: Tanya/Reiko (75% for at least one)
9: Shinnok (unlockable) (60%)
10: Quan Chi (95%)
11: Mileena (85%)
12: Ermac (unlockable) (70%)
13: Cyrax/Sektor (unlockable) (50%)
14: Kitana (beat story mode unlockable) (90%)
15: Cassie
16: Ferra/Torr
17: D'Vorah
18: Kotal Kahn (unlockable)
19-30: New character (all unlocked)
DLC
31: Guest
32: Johnny Cage/Sonya Blade (95%, possible both are in story mode)
33: Cyrax/Sektor (50%)
34: Kung Lao (80%)
35: Smoke (60%)
36: Jax (50%)

I don't think anyone could complain if that was the final roster. I'm kind of unsure on Shinnok and Quan Chi but that storyline needs to be wrapped up for good, for all of our sanities.

A lot of the characters I think are very iffy and could easily be replaced. For instance, Mileena with Reiko or Baraka, Ermac with Reptile.

I agree with everything you said...
Will be very kool if the first 5 years of the history are the Shinnok arc..

If they just cut Shinnok out, I swear to God I'll go on a Razor style rant

Zombie Lao!! Zombie Lao!!

I think that the 4-5 eras in which this game takes place will each carry a primary antagonist with others still coming i"into power" in their own light.

I've heard " 5 years, 10, 15 and eventually 25 years" but I don't recall hearing "20" which is why I said 4-5. Perhaps even another boss right after MK9?

Okay so 4-6.

Shinnok and Onaga need to be at least acknowledged. I'd assume blaze as well but he can simply be killed off screen or on. With two games revolving heavily around Onaga/The a Dragon King, he will likely be more than just a death.

Shinnok
Onaga
Kotal Kahn (confirmed)

Beyond this, we will be into hugely uncharted territory. It's any bodies guess. Another 1-3 wild cards or more depending on the circumstances. Anybody can get ahold of the Kamidogu. What of Tanya or Shujinko's quest?

Here is my guess as to some potential primary antagonists:

Ferra/Torr ("Queen/Silver Queen/Jungle Ruins)
D'Dorah (Close to Kotal/Can have eyes and ears everywhere)
Mileena (Kahn's heir)
Sektor (Medallion / I hope not)
Quan Chi (Amulet/ screen value of him vs scorpion)
Reiko (due for his time to shine/ very formidable/general)
Shujinko (easily my biggest hope for "big bad" Altered quest, too much power)
Noob Saibot (Soulnado = potential/his desire for power)
Havik (it's Havik...)