Good question.

In a perfect world they would keep moving forward, the (Human) originals would continue getting older and would eventually be phased out with the next generation while the other staples wouldn't age and would appear periodically.

But, as you say that probably won't happen.
I honestly have no idea what they'll do, probably something similar to what you suggested. I just hope they don't do more time travel until at least Armageddon 2.

Sub-Zero and Sareena can produce plausible offspring if the storyline always their characters to develop. Maybe their offspring can be the new leaders of the Earthrealm Defenders than say the hypothetical son of Liu Kang.


I've always wanted Liu Kang's conflict with Raiden to be resolved, reunite with Kitana, and maybe contrary to the MK4 timeline rule Edenia together once it's freed and produce offspring. To most MK fans, Liu Kang and Kitana being together MAKES SENSE due to their caricatures that unite them (Liu Kang wants to live with someone because he's immortal with the MK Title and he'll be forced as time flies to watch all of his friends and family die, Kitana wants to reconcile her past as a ruthless assassin and free her realm, righting the wrongs of the past and needs support of someone who can help her defeat Kahn and admire her motives). However I don't think MKX will be kind to Liu Kang around this time and might make him into the final boss. Maybe Kitana does give birth to his daughter before he goes rogue and when she grows, goes back in time to undo the damage caused by Liu Kang in the future by stopping Fire God Kang in the past. Maybe Liu Kang in his rogue Fire God form gets seduced by Tanya and she ends up birthing a son that could be a rival to Kitana's daughter given both their parents' hatred of one another.

Those are just some of my story ideas and I'm sure almost none of them are going to come into MKX.

As much as NRS would want the game to progress, most fans will never let go of the old characters, the only chance to have playable offspring is if their mummies and daddies are there to babysit them, or else fans will cry: "AMG!! replacement BS, they don't have to play the same so keep them all plaayble!!111one", the torch will never get passed, so I expect an Armageddon 2 followed by the mandatory reboot.

I'd be happy if Liu's and Kitana's offspring would be a son.

Idk I just hope they don't go back in time or reboot and make Cassie non existent, even though im one that generally prefers the MK1-MKTrilogy characters I already like Cassie much more than her mother.

With how good the art department is, and how many incredible artists that want to work on MK, I could see a cast of 80% new characters. I wouldn't mind it at all, and I see Cassie becoming a regular after this game. They're definitely trying and succeeding with establishing the new comers as part of the MK canon universe. I don't think this is a question of offspring overtaking the cast, since there really aren't many. Their plan was never to fill the roster up with the old cast's kids, which is obvious. They're definitely working on making new characters with original stories that fit into the already existing world a part of the game. I'm all for it. But with an MK game, and a cast of almost 30 it's not very hard to put in everyone's favorites along with a ton of new characters. Basically what they're doing with this game, it's like MKDA with actual good new characters.

You know, I can just imagine the (rejunevated) parents mentoring their offsprings forever, and ever, and ever, as a way to keep both the parents and the popular offsprings around.

But anyway, the best-case (plausible) scenario might be NRS letting the offsprings become their own characters, and not bring up their parents much. Cassie's story's best chance of not becoming a repeat of Sonya's might require Sonya herself to stick around and keep on chasing Kano and/or the Black Dragon. Because otherwise, there'd probably be fan expectations of Cassie following in her mother's footsteps, in fact there were before Sonya was confirmed, now I'm not so sure.

I feel that the offspring idea might end up being one of the most pointless ones in the series, right up there with Cyber-SubZero.

As long as MK doesn't become perpetual, I prefer the mentor aspect of relationships rather than the whole next of kin scenario, in most cases. In my view, some fighters being students produce deeper storylines. I know this because progenies in MK, on this level, is a new thing.

Blue Kang!!

It looks like they want to phase out some of the old characters. It might be tough,tho. Ether they could just have AU spinoff games with the old characters or they could have the next games come out while never specifying how many years have passed. That way people wont be entirely sure if the old characters are supposed to be dead or not.

If there's any chance some character offsprings will come after MKX, I'd say....

- Liu & Kitana
&
- Tundra/Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang) & Sareena

I'll gladly accept it, if the mother and fathers stay in story mode only and are not playable in game. No sense in having a whole family of people in the same game. Just look at all the BATMAN characters we had in Injustice. Hmph. Though I did love Batwoman and Cats. They were very fun!

Something I think they could do is create a spin-off series set in the future, in the vein of Marvel's 2099 brand, that is all about the next generation.

I realize this idea isn't that likely, but what's even less likely is them keeping the human originals old and/or retired. Will the next MK game be set 25 years in the future, or further? If the originals aren't retired from the story, then what can be done with them in the future that can't be done in the present?

I have been wondering about this myself.

With descendant characters, you gotta think they'll become mainstays. After all, what would be the point of introducing them just to shelf them? I can easily see Cassie taking Johnny and Sonya's places in future games.

And that brings me to the original characters. They aren't getting any younger. At some point they have to hang it up. Why age the characters if you're never planning on having them retire?

Something else just occurred to me: Are any of the live human originals so popular that their absence would seriously hinder a MK game's sales?

Scorpion can stick around seeing as he is a spectre, and being back from the dead is a major part of his character unlike Liu Kang or Jax. Same for Noob Saibot. As Kuai Liang proved in MK2, and with the discovery in MKD of him being part of a non-human species, new characters can assume the Sub-Zero mantle. Then you have the otherwordly characters like Kitana, Mileena, Reptile, Goro etc that are either immortal or have a nearly infinite lifespan.

Hell, Scorpion can be considered a mantle too, as it doesn't have to be Hanzo Hasachi under the yellow garb. They can pull a Ghost Rider and have a new individual merged with a vengeful entity, that happens to look like Scorpion, just like both Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch looked identical as Ghost Riders, even though Ketch was not at all a biker.

There are enough familiar characters that could remain to help with the series' transition into the next generation. I still have my doubts about the offsprings and the future having any lasting appeal, but maybe they're not as risky for NRS as I once thought.