Thanks to the news update, it's highly likely that MK7 will be named MK:A. Unless they plan on a MK: Trilogy 2 (God forbid), there are plenty of characters to be included and plenty to be left out. Your picks and tosses?

My list:

Essential characters to include:
1) Ermac (his mysterious ending)
2) Raiden (.....well, of course)
3) Kung Lao (Liu needs to step down)
4) Shang Tsung and/or Quan Chi (they probably found some way to survive the blast, or some other means of reanimation)
5) Sub-Zero (he's all hype and not one of my favorites, but they have been prepping him for awhile to take some major protagonist role)
6) Mavado and Kabal (let's bring back that Red/Black Dragon rivalry)
7) Jax and Sonya (ain't MK without the Special Forces)
8) Hotaru/Havik (with all the realms in Armageddon, let's see where Order and Chaos play in all this)
9) Shao Kahn/Onaga (YEAH.)
10) Noob and Smoke (as separates)

Non-essentials (indifferent to the storyline, but wouldn't mind them in):
1) Scorpion
2) Cyrax
3) Bo Rai Cho
4) Mileena
5) Sindel
6) Nightwolf
7) Kano
8) Li Mei
9) Kitana
10) Baraka
11) Johnny Cage

Characters that shouldn't be in the game (or some ever concieved):
1) Kenshi (we've got Ermac, the telekinetic O.G.)
2) Shujinko (his only purpose was a protagonist filler)
3) Liu Kang (should've stayed dead)
4) Stryker
5) Reiko
6) Motaro

Characters that damn well need to make a return, with a fitting revamp:
1) Sektor
2) Rain
3) Fujin
4) Shinnok
5) Kai
6) Jerrod (it'd be cool to see him as a character)
7) Sheeva (yeah you heard me, but with more originality)