Heh, people getting into debates over so little. Let's clarify things.

Reptile is an MK1 character, because he first appeared in MK1. It doesn't matter if he had no story or unique moves, he was in MK1 thus is an MK1 character, just like Jade and Smoke are MK2 characters.

Ermac and Rain are MK3 characters, because UMK3 and Trilogy were part of the MK3 era, just like the characters introduced in Street Fighter III: Third Strike are considered SFIII characters, not strictly TS ones.

The most complex cases are the two Sub-Zeroes. Noob was an MK2 character until he was revealed to be Bi-Han, and Kuai Liang was accepted as the new Sub-Zero, but despite that, Sub-Zero remains an MK1 character. So Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot might simultaneously be both MK1 and 2 characters. But from which game and era the other characters were introduced in shouldn't be difficult to figure out.

So, there isn't any reveal pattern for the revealed characters beyond being core ones. They haven't even revealed popular but "unessential" (in NRS' mind, I'm sure) characters like Jade, Ermac, Smoke, Kabal, Cyrax, Sektor or Kenshi yet.

I don't consider this a pattern, it's more or less a theme.

Regardless, I don't think this is indicative of in what order people will be revealed, as in, if they aren't revealed before the next game of characters start being revealed, I still think they'll be revealed eventually.

I don't believe that just because Lung and Kitana are now revealed that it means Johnny and Sonya won't be revealed.

I just think they are revealing those that they want to show off. They may say to themselves "let's do another MK1 character", but I don't think it's a rule or pattern they are sticking to.

I believe they have revealed popular yet "unessential" characters. How does Kitana and Kung Lao not fit into that category?

...I think we all know that, Rain Man. I was saying it's simpler to just say "MK3" than going to the trouble of typing out MK3/UMK3/MKT because regardless of the added characters- it's the same exact story.

With Ermac (MK3) revealed, this theory is debunked imo. I'd be very surprised if Mileena, Cage and Jax aren't in the game and playable.

Mileena is a shoe in.