Probably not:
• Shang Tsung. His soul was transferred to Sindel, who as far as we can tell is still under Quan Chi's control at a fairly late stage of the game. MK9 implied that he might come back as a "new champion," but clearly the Cassie Squad is in charge of being the main heroes and Scorpion seems to be the bad guy gone good. Looks grim.
Somewhat possible:
• Bo' Rai Cho. As Outworld's greatest martial arts master, surely he has a stake in its future. Webseries gives him a significant role to play in training Kung Jin. However, this could just be a snippet of backstory that might not carry over into a game appearance. It seems like NRS doesn't want to forget about him, but the love/hate among the fans might still be skewed too far toward hate, and if he played any kind of commanding role here like he did in MKDA/D then it seems like we would have heard about it by now.
• Liu Kang. Liu seems far too irrelevant to be playing much of a part here. He hasn't trained any of the kids, there's no room for him to be the Big Hero (which has really been his
only defining character trait up until MKDA), and Johnny Cage is Raiden's new prodigy. So far, there is no indication that he went Fire God because Raiden has kept his job and there doesn't seem to be room for such an important subplot in the story. He only really has two minor positive counts: he's supposed to at least make some kind of appearance in the comics somewhere, and he has icon status -- who better to send off the new generation of MK than its original champion?
• Li Mei. Her appearance in the trailer -- if that is indeed her, which is likely but not a guarantee -- has a strong "plot-driving cameo" vibe to it. And Ed tweeted that we might see her in "some capacity," which is a transparently dodgy way of saying "not full capacity." She probably needs an extra gimmick besides Impossible Flexibility to fill out her Variations; in this regard, she's on about the same level as Baraka in gameplay disadvantage. Some people's idea that she could play out a chapter leading up to the trailer scene makes enough sense to keep her off the bottom category here.
• Tanya. Edenia seems to be a non-factor here, even for the Netherrealm War, so it's hard to see how she would get involved... and there are plenty of other characters filling the "traitor" roles. Her fan following is pretty much her only asset... unfortunately for them.
• Kai. MK4 cred, and Boon seemed interested in reinventing his handstand style for Armageddon; maybe this could be his second chance. It's a slim maybe though.
Maybe?
• Jax. He's an old icon and they might want to up the family interactions. However, he has so far played no role in the comic story -- not even to save his own daughter from the Black Dragons alongside Johnny and Sonya. Plus, Jacqui's gauntlets encroach a little too closely on his robo-arms gimmick -- funny thing is, she is bound to make much more use of her gauntlets' technology than Jax ever did with his arms. No one ever guaranteed that EVERY family member would be in, so I'm guessing that he is as likely to be running the show at HQ or something now, as being in active kombat.
• Baraka. We see him there (probably) doing something sort of important to the story (presumably). He has a reason to be there, being the Tarkatan leader and all. But there doesn't seem to be a lot he can do with Variations; his blades make him kind of a one-trick pony because everything has to be an in-your-face slash party. And they seem to be building up Rain (see below) and Reiko (see
farther below) to have a lot more importance.
• Havik. Chaosrealm can invade the Faction Wars, which would be a little dull without at least one representative in the game. MK9 implied some potential involvement in the Netherrealm War, and civil war in Outworld seems like the kind of thing he'd want to be a part of. He's also pretty much the only new Deception character who ever found broad audience appeal. We haven't seen any sign of him yet, though, and it's hard to tell if there's any room for him in the story. He is in the
Himmerick pool, though.
• Fujin. He's in the comic, but doesn't seem very important. Many of his gameplay options have been claimed by other characters (let it be noted here that Kung Lao and Kitana had windy powers before Fujin came around, so they didn't "steal" them). He could easily play a role in the Netherrealm War, though, and he is both widely requested and represented in the Himmerick pool.
• Kenshi. In the webseries he's supposed to fight alongside Takeda in the Special Forces, but he's notably absent from the trailer. An auxiliary role? In the comics, he's totally MIA. There's a decent chance he would be in, but there's way too much mystery surrounding him right now to say for sure... which suits his mystique just fine.
• Sektor
or Cyrax, but probably not both. It would be odd not to see them get some representation (especially since the Lin Kuei is short on heads at the moment), but there doesn't seem to be room in the game for two. Cyrax would make a good rescue case like back in the day; Sektor would make a good rival for the Grandmaster title. But the whole thing is up in the air right now.
Fairly likely:
• Rain. They've been shaping Rain into a compelling character since Armageddon. He's one of the very few players on Mileena's side, and certainly a powerful one. He clearly survived getting solar-flared by a Kamidogu-'roided Kotal, and I'm guessing that he javelin-kicks Kotal off a building after a long-standing vendetta over that. With his sizable and vocal fan following, he'd be the ultimate fanservice character aside from Tremor. Even still... as much of an effort as they've put into making Rain cool, they've never put out much enthusiasm for
committing to him. That's the only thing stopping him from making the top category here.
Looks good!
• Reiko. Damn, Reiko looks good.
• Erron Black. All but confirmed.
• Shinnok. He hasn't been "guaranteed" yet, but his odds are way up. If he's trapped in the Amulet then there's a good chance in Hell that he's not staying there for long, with Mileena toying with powers beyond her control.
• Johnny Cage. Cassie doesn't seem to use much of his powers -- definitely not the projectiles -- and who knows what new tricks he's picked up over the years, Seidan training or no. And, of course, he's Raiden's right hand man in the Netherrealm War.
• Sonya. Cassie seems to borrow a little more of Sonya's flair with her acrobatics and really exemplifies the Special Forces connection with the missile strike attacks. But Sonya has not been one to stand back and do nothing, and her Faction pic is pretty telling. She's almost certainly in.
Guranteed:
• Mokap. Pulling the strings on literally every move that every character makes.
