WMG / Mortal Kombat X

Pre-Release

Kotal Kahn is Shao Kahn's....

• Brother
• Half-Brother
• Cousin
• Son
• Bastard Son
• Adopted Son
• Nephew
• Father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate
• Both his son and his father

Or failing any of the above, a native from Outworld, or one who came to Outworld, who addfed the name Kahn because he desires to be the new Emperor of Outworld.

• That would imply that if Shao Khan didn't have any heir, then the title would be granted to the strongest Outworld fighter.
• Here's one possible take on the "son" theory: We know that Sindel, 10,000 years prior to the events of II and 3, was Driven to Suicide because of the death of her husband Jerrod, the enslavement of the Edenian people, her forced marriage to Shao Kahn, and Kitana's adoption as the Emperor's daughter. 9, however, shows that while the basic skeleton of the original trilogy's backstory remained intact, there were changes, such as the creation of Mileena happening during the time of MKII. So, who's to say that Shao Kahn didn't add one more offense to the list by extorting a child—a legitimate biological heir—out of Sindel, with said child being Kotal himself? (The Edenians and Outworlders are incredibly long-lived, so it's not impossible.) Having to give birth to a boy sired by Shao Kahn, the man who took everything else from her on top of her fidelity, was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Sindel ended up taking her own life soon after. Given how, naturally, no one brings this up in 9 (as Mileena is mentioned to be next in line for the throne), Kotal's existence was kept secret as a trump card for Shao Kahn in the case of succession disputes.
  • According to a rumor/leak Kotal Kahn has no relation to Shao Kahn.
• Jossed. Kotal Kahn is not related to Shao Kahn. Ed Boon confirmed it in this tweet
• The newest trailer for Raiden has Boon confirm Kotal Kahn to be the new Emperor of Outworld, implying that the Kahn at the end of his name is just a title.

Alternatively, Kotal Kahn is connected to Shinnok

According to this unconfirmed source, Kotal "has something to do with Shinnok". Possible ways are:

• Biological son
• Reincarnation
• Apprentice / protegee
• Replacement Elder God
• Last or first new worshipper
• Shapeshifter disguise (if Shang Tsung can pull that off, an Elder God definitely can)
• Clone
• Father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate
  • As of the 6th issue of the comic, this seems to be Jossed for now.

The Sub-Zero here in this game is Bi-Han

He had a similar situation to Scorpion in Deception. The Elder Gods restored him to his original, less Noob Saibot-ish form, but they will only have him permanently restored should he defeat or aid in the defeat of the Big Bad of the game (either Shinnok or the surprise Big Bad that was mentioned in E3).

• Two observations: 1) In their intro, Scorpion calls Sub-Zero a murderer. Unlike in MK4, where Quan Chi implicated Kuai Liang as the one who killed Scorpion's wife and child, Quan Chi tricked Scorpion into believing it was Bi-Han's doing during the previous game. Because of this and the fact that Kuai shows up during the Outworld tournament to avenge Bi-Han, it's probably not Kuai. Then again, Scorpion never thinks straight when it comes to his vengeance, so the mere sight of Sub-Zero could cause him to point fingers. 2) One of Sub-Zero's ice constructs is an ice hammer. Anyone who's played Armageddon might remember that Noob was given a Troll Hammer as his weapon style in that game. Granted, this one is flimsier; it could just be a matter of Sub-Zero—whoever it is under the mask—getting more creative with his powers.
  • Or he is Bi-han and Kuai Liang 's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
    • Hints are already given that it could be either Bi Han or Kuai Liang. Quan Chi said to Sub-Zero, "I have your brother's soul!". Question is which brother? Though Bi Han holds the biggest chance due to being tossed to the Soulnado gives him a solid reason to return and escaping Quan Chi's clutches like what happened to Kuai Liang is... going to use a lot more Ass Pull to pull off.
• Jossed: It's Kuai Liang, brought back from the dead after Raiden was able to reverse Quan Chi's spell on him, Scorpion, and Jax.

The Big Bad of Mortal Kombat X is Liu Kang.

Having been killed by Raiden in Mortal Kombat 9, it was a given that he'd wind up in the Netherrealm with his allies since that was the deal Quan Chi made with Shao Kahn. Disfigured, faithless in his mentor and traumatized by the death of his friends and lover, Liu Kang would be approached by Shinnok, who would offer him the chance at revenge in exchange for his loyalty, whilst stripping him of all that was good about him. Shinnok would then be the Greater-Scope Villain, pulling the strings from behind the scenes whilst Liu himself wages a Rage Against the Heavens, demanding that he be made Earthrealm's guardian over Raiden.

• Considering that Word of God said that the final boss would be a character who was already known, this is a strong possibility.
• However, Boon also said the Big Bad, while a "returning" character, would be someone few people would be expecting. As a number of fans have already speculated Liu Kang would come back as a wraith, that does put a damper on their chances for main villain status.
  • A rumor stating that Liu Kang is getting a new model lends credence to this theory.
• It would lend credence to the Zombie Liu Kang we got in Deception and Armageddon.
• Subverted above, as though Liu Kang is not the Big Bad, he is revived as a revenant for Shinnok.

Reiko will get to rule Outworld in Mortal Kombat X

In the primary canon, Reiko has always been portrayed as wanting to rule Outworld in the place of Shao Kahn. In the post-reboot canon, with Shao Kahn out of the way, it looks like Reiko will finally get his chance.

A further guess is that Reiko will exploit his resemblance to Shao Kahn to pass as him.

An even further guess, considering how pretty much every villain suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder in the post-reboot canon, is that Shao Kahn's spirit will attempt to possess Reiko's body in order to return to the status quo, but Reiko will reveal himself to to have anticipated that move and make that attempt go horribly wrong with the aid of a sorcerer (possibly Quan Chi). Then Quan Chi will reveal he only used Reiko's greed for power to get that power for himself, and all hell will break loose (literally, given how Quan Chi built his army).

Scorpion and Sub-Zero will fight as allies in Mortal Kombat X

In Mortal Kombat 9, Nightwolf defeated Noob Saibot by throwing him into the Soulnado. But another character had already been thrown into the Soulnado: Scorpion, in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. He survived, so there is no reason to believe Noob Saibot died, also considering that both he and Scorpion are already undead.

At this point you might ask, what was that purple explosion? Well, we know that Quan Chi did something to Bi-Han to "perfect him", turning him into Noob Saibot. We also know that Noob Saibot can form another entity to help him in his fights. Well, what if Quan Chi fused Bi-Han with an entity from the Netherrealm, and that entity exploded when Noob Saibot was thrown into the soulnado? Take that away and you get... Bi-Han, now rightly angry at Quan Chi for enslaving him. And what revenge would be better than to force Quan Chi to confess and prove, in front of Scorpion, that he was in fact who killed his family and clan? At that point, Scorpion too would realize he had been used, and he would turn against Quan Chi.

• I gotta call "iffy" on that. At least going by the present builds, Scorpion is referring to Sub-Zero, with little ambiguity, that he is guilty of being a murderer. Seems like they're not on talking terms at the moment. Not saying it can't happen (since at SOME point Quan Chi's treachery has to come to light and Scorpion needs to give just desserts) but at first glance there is definitely some mending that will have to be done between those two.
  • Ended up confirmed. Scorpion (now the human Hanzo Hasashi) and Sub-Zero (Kuai Liang, revived and not a robot) broker a deal to find and assassinate Quan Chi. Whoopsie!

Injustice: Gods Among Us will foreshadow some developments in Mortal Kombat X

2008's MKvsDCU previewed Shao Kahn's return as the main antagonist as well as the fracturing of the relationship between Raiden and Liu Kang in 2011's Mortal Kombat 9 (albeit in the case of first he was merely part of the Big Bad Dark Kahn). In the case of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 10, basically replace Insurgent Batman and Regime Superman with Raiden and Raoh-style Revenant Darkside Liu Kang.

• Eventually subverted.

Predictions of Storyline Character Chapters in MKX

• First Chapter: Johnny Cage or Sonya Blade
  • Confirmed for Johnny Cage.
• Second Chapter: Johnny Cage or Sonya Blade
  • Jossed. The protagonist of the second chapter is Kotal Kahn.
• Early-ish Chapters: Cyrax, Fujin, Liu Kang, Kai, Reptile, Sareena, and likely new characters
• Pre-Halfway point Chapter: Raiden (including Raiden vs Shinnok)
• Post-Halfway point Chapter: Kenshi
• Late-ish chapters: Ermac, Li Mei, and other new characters
• Next to Final Chapter: Scorpion (including Scorpion vs Quan Chi).
• Final Chapter: ??? Vs Liu Kang
  • Eventually subverted. Liu is not a final boss.
• Other Possible Opponents to be fought in Story Mode: Baraka, Goro, Jarek, Kano, Kintaro, Liu Kang, Mileena, Rain, Reiko, Scorpion, Sektor, Sheeva, Skarlet, Tanya, and maybe Quan Chi's undead army which includes Jade, Jax, Kabal, Kitana, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Sindel, Smoke, Kurtis Stryker, and a now human formed Kuai Liang Sub-Zero, even Liu Kang.
• Possible Unlockable and/or DLC: Blaze and Khameleon.
• Possible Canon Immigrant: Belokk
• Possible Guest Fighter(s):
  • For PlayStation consoles: Delsin Rowe, Colonel Radec, Needles Kane (AKA Sweet Tooth)
  • For Xbox consoles: either Jago or Fulgore, Marcus Fenix
  • All Consoles: The Arkham Knight, Juliet Starling, Geralt of Rivia

The Sub-Zero seen in the Mortal Kombat X trailer is NOT Kuai Liang

Since Kuai Liang is both robotic and... dead due to the events of Mortal Kombat 9, the Sub-Zero seen in the debut trailer (and probably the game) is a revived Bi-Han/Noob Saibot, given a similar opportunity to walk among the living again that Scorpion was granted in Mortal Kombat: Deception (as a herald of the Elder Gods).

• Or maybe the blue-clad person...
  • (1) is a clone of either of the late Sub-Zero brothers, and perhaps cloning will play a role in the story.
  • (2) Or maybe a totally new person altogether.
    • Possible evidence for either the Clone or Legacy Character (perhaps an illegitimate child or other relative of either of the now deceased brothers) theory is that the Sub-Zero in the second trailer not just only sounds nothing like neither Jamieson Price's Bi-Han/Noob Saibot nor Jim Miller's Kuai Liang, his voice sounds a bit younger than either of them (another random observation, he sounds like Steve Blum using a voice similar to that he used for Amon).
  • (3) Or maybe is Bi-Han but perhaps the story mode of MKX will feature flashback chapters covering the events of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero.
  • (4) Or maybe either one of the Sub-Zero brothers from a parallel universe (a la Injustice: Gods Among Us) in which Bi-Han/Kuai Liang was never turned into a wraith or cyborg.
  • (5) Or maybe Kuai Liang revived as a Scorpion-style wraith, said resurrection being a workaround to rid him of cybernetics.
    • And the reason this happened was to serve as Scorpion's replacement after Scorpion discovered the truth about the Shirai Ryu's demise and turned on Quan Chi.
    • Half-confirmed, it is actually Kuai Liang, but not as wraith, only a simple undead Cyromancer, finally removed from cybernetics for unknown reasons, and assuming his original timeline's role as a Lin Kuei's new Grandmaster as usual, but in 25 years later after Shinnok's defeat, his revival along with the other warriors who were revived as an undead by Quan Chi, and finishes most of remaining Lin Kuei cyborgs whose after him during the beginning of Other Realm Civil War/Kamidogu Dagger incident in comic prequel.

Mortal Kombat X character predictions:

• Tremor's playable debut (CONFIRMED!)
• The return of Chameleon and/or Khameleon
  • The debut of a similar copy character for the cyborg ninjas. It will be called Qhameleon.
    • Confirmed! - Kombat Pack 2 has a DLC character named Triborg, who incorporates the moves of Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke and Cyber Sub-Zero
• An Ermac-style amalgamated warrior of the fallen Earth heroes (Ermac's Evil(er?) Counterpart?).
• Daughter of Mileena and Baraka, effectively ending up as "Mileena but with Baraka's arm blades".
• Jax's adopted son, serves as Cassie Cage's Platonic Life Partner
  • Biological daughter, Jacqui Briggs, but otherwise confirmed.
• A pirate (either male or female that fits The Kove stage well)
• A Seidan soldier trained under Hotaru's hand
• A Russian warrior using Commando Sambo (potential Bayman expy)
• A pink-haired Japanese Black Dragon Member (if Kira doesn't make the cut)
• A Chaosrealmer who follows Havik's philosophy; alternatively, a serial killer from said realm
  • In a twist, the serial killer is fixated on order, which means he's an affront to Chaosrealmers in every way.
• A Canadian lightweight pro-wrestler
• A new Shokan
• A superhero/vigilante
• A serial killer from Earthrealm
  • Jason Voorhees is slated to be DLC, so confirmed.
• A zombie
• A new Edenian warrior woman
• A werewolf who has intense hatred on Nitara (if she's in)
• A male or female who use multiple elements
• A redesigned Transplant from War Gods
  • Confirmed with Kotal Khan, who's modeled after Ahau Kin.
• A wild west themed sheriff fueled by pure hatred
  • Also confirmed! In the Mortal Kombat X prequel comics, one of Kotal Kahn's generals, Erron Black, is a wild west-themed warrior. No word on the hatred part, though.

Veterans from the 3D Era (only 8 will be confirmed):

• Kai
• Tanya (CONFIRMED AS DLC)
• Reiko
• Jarek (if Armageddon revamped him, why not give him a better chance?)
• Fujin
• Bo' Rai Cho (Confirmed in Kombat Pack 2 as DLC)
• Li Mei
• Mavado (Jossed)
• Frost (there are many allusions with her recently regarding a certain ice queen)
• Nitara
• Drahmin (Jossed)
• Hsu Hao (Jossed for several reasons, and he's decisively killed off by Scorpion in the first prequel comic from DC.)
• Moloch (Is making a cameo as a severed head carried by Quan Chi his pre-match intros.
• Shujinko
• Ashrah
• Kira (if she's confirmed, give her all new moves, otherwise not necessary)
• Kobra (unlikely to happen due to his status)
• Hotaru
• Havik (considering one of the MK9 endings hinted at his appearance, he's one of the many fan favorites, alongside with Kenshi)
• Dairou (again, not going to happen)
• Darrius (same with Dairou)
• Taven
• Daegon

Goals and motivations of factions in MKX

Raiden and allies

• Members: Raiden, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Kenshi, Liu Kang, Jax, Kung Lao and two other new characters (possibly including one voiced by Kiefer Sutherland).
  • Potential new recruits/allies: Bo' Rai Cho, Cyrax, Ermac, Frost(?), Fujin, Kai, Kenshi, Li Mei, Reptile(?), Sareena.
• Goals: Rebuild and protect Earthrealm from future threats. Also likely to be focused on looking for new allies due to the events of the last game.
  • (not OP) Wasn't sure if you would've liked other Tropers editing in potential members, so I'll just reply below your ideas like this. Since (a woman most of us believe to be) Khameleon was spotted as a background extra in 9, if she doesn't end up as a neutral third party, Reptile being recruited over to Earthrealm/the Resistance's side might prompt Khameleon to join Raiden so that she could be close to Reptile and convince him to repopulate their dying race.

Outworld Empire

• Members: Mileena, Baraka, Goro, Kintaro, Reptile(?), Sheeva, Skarlet, and Quan Chi.
• Goals: Mileena, as Empress of Outworld following Shao Kahn's demise by Raiden and the Elder Gods, will seek to recover following the failure of the invasion of Earthrealm. Outworld will likely endure internal strife as some conquered lands and people seek to achieve independence.

Brotherhood of Shadows

• Members: Shinnok, Quan Chi, Drahmin, Moloch, Rain(?), Reiko, Scorpion, Tanya, Liu Kang, Shao Kahn, Jade, Jax, Kabal, Kitana, Kung Lao, Nightwolf, Sindel, Smoke, Kurtis Stryker, and Sub-Zero.
• Goals: Shinnok and Quan Chi will seek to conquer both Earthrealm and Outworld. Their efforts to achieve this will likely include use of mass deception to prevent an Enemy Mine alliance between Earthrealm and Outworld from forming so that they will continue to fight each other instead of fighting against Shinnok. However Quan Chi will betray him to pursue his own agenda only to eventually be betrayed by Scorpion and Liu Kang, the former wanting revenge for the sorcerer having killed his clan and the latter to pursue his own bid to remake the realms and mercilessly cleanse existence of evil, and thus become the next Big Bad.
  • Even if limited to a cameo (the likeliest bet for a lot of prospective characters, honestly), Drahmin is liked by Boon as much as Hsu Hao is (that is to say, not at all), so his chances and possibly Moloch's by proxy may be slim. Ashrah is established to be a former sister of the Brotherhood a la Sareena, so she could either be still serving Quan Chi or gravitating towards the Forces of Light, depending on when the current timeline matches up to the point in her Deception backstory where she starts disobeying Quan Chi and flees, eventually stumbling across the Kriss. Given Noob's Arcade Ladder ending in 9, Havik might or might not be a beneficiary to the Brotherhood. A Netherrealm invasion of Earthrealm/Outworld would prove to be most chaotic, but at the same time, his Deception ending had Havik using Onaga's powers to bring back chaos to the realms by reviving Shao Kahn; who knows where on the Order/Chaos spectrum Shinnok and Quan Chi fall in Havik's eyes.

Black Dragon

• Members: Kano, Jarek.
• Goals: Simply to avoid getting captured by Sonya and the Special Forces and perhaps figure out how to profit off the chaos of the Earthrealm vs Outworld vs Netherrealm war.
  • ... Tremor? Sure, he didn't have the Plot Armor Kano and Jarek did, but if there's any pre-existing Black Dragon member who has a chance to come back, it's him.

Lin Kuei

• Members: Sektor, Frost(?)
• Goals: ???

Woman (The One Being?) from Jade's Arcade Ladder ending in MK9

• Associates: ???
• Goals: Anyone's guess, but perhaps displeased with both Raiden's and Shinnok's tampering with the timeline throughout Mortal Kombat 9.
  • If this mysterious woman turns out to be the One Being or linked to it, there is a possibility for Onaga to return, seeing as it's implied Onaga is being influenced by the One Being much like Shao Kahn (the One Being desires to make itself whole again by reuniting the realms created by its shattered consciousness, hence why Shao Kahn and Onaga aggressively attempt to keep annexing other realms into Outworld). It was even outright stated in his unused ending in Deception.
  • Well, a whole bunch of these ideas have been jossed. Reiko is aligned with Mileena in the comics, Ermac is apparently an ally of Kotal Kahn, Moloch is a decapitated head carried around by Quan Chi, Kung Lao and Kitana have apparently been resurrected, and Frost is a deathmatch MMA fighter who in all probability will get killed in the comics.
    • Frost was beaten by Cassie who at first refused to finish her, but was coerced into trying. Jarek and Tasia break into the arena, letting Cassie leave without killing Frost who was last seen on a stretcher.

Mortal Kombat X will introduce a new, previously unrevealed realm.

The glimpses of the new characters at E3 suggest a more Mayincatec flavour: a mysterious blue figure performing an Aztec-sacrifice style fatality, the child(?) on the large figure seems kinda Central American tribal, and "Ladybug" smacks a tad of Ah Muzen Cab. Might just be a new subculture of an existing realm, but a whole new realm isn't a far-flung notion.

• Semi-confirmed; The prequel comics have revealed this realm to be called Osh-Tekk, previously absorbed into Outworld. No word yet if it will appear in the game proper though.

There will be a new "Deadly Alliance" in X.

With Shang Tsung out of commission (at least for the moment) but Quan Chi still probably thinking about turning the tables on Shinnok at some point (since he's got the amulet and aside from the large loss of life on Earthrrealm's side, the setup for Mortal Kombat 4 is relatively intact), he will ally with a new figure to betray Shinnok (this time made easier as Liu Kang and Shao Kahn also no longer factor into things). To place bets, Rain seems like a good candidate (a very antagonistic character from the start but one who never was able to make any ingress in the story despite his general evil-ness; now would be a good time to seize upon that).

Big Bad Speculation

Boon revealed at E3 2014 that the Big Bad will be both a returning character and someone most people won't see coming. That more or less rules out Quan Chi and Shinnok, who were hinted to be the Big Bad Duumvirate at the end of MK9. So, who will it be?

• In the "Back from the Dead" corner:
  • Liu Kang as a vengeful spectre (too predictable?)
    • Subverted
  • Shang Tsung
  • Shao Kahn
• In the "Previous Villain" corner:
  • Evil!Raiden circa Deception
    • Given that Raiden has been confirmed as a playable character, this prediction looks to be jossed unless something else occurs (he is cloned, is duplicated by means of sorcery and/or expel his evil from himself.)
    • Though not the Big Bad of X, Raiden does get corrupted after purifying the Jinsei, thus becoming Dark Raiden again at the end of X, so this is partially confirmed. It's very likely that Evil aka Dark Raiden will be the Big Bad for the next Mortal Kombat game.
  • Onaga, the Big Bad of Deception
  • Daegon, the Big Bad of Armageddon
  • The One Being
• In the "Other Guesses" corner:
  • Reiko
  • Tanya
  • Havik
  • Sektor
  • ...Mokap?
    • In his MKA ending, Mokap was the only one who was able to achieve the effect that Argus and Delia intended to occur (Disabling everyone's abilities without killing them). Perhaps in this timeline, Shinnok will have recruited Mokap to serve as something of either a Dark Messiah or in the event that Armageddon does reoccur, Shinnok can make it so that it will happen in terms that benefit him and his loyalists (e.g. disabling his enemies' powers while preserving their own).
    • As of Kombat Kast 5, this theory is Jossed. Mokap won't be appearing in X.
  • Another Krazy-ass guess: Chameleon. In the earlier games, he was a character who could use and switch between the moves of the male ninjas (Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Ermac, and Rain). Perhaps he will be revamped into some sort of Cell-like individual who seeks to assimilate as many other warriors into his being and fighting styles as possible to become the most powerful warrior possible. They may also link him to some shadowy new or returning faction (e.g. The Red Dragon).
  • Another Krazy guess: Skarlet. It is stated that she gains more power from whoever's blood she spills via her skin (in the case of her arcade ending in MK9, it was Shao Kahn's). Perhaps during the events after MK9, she went on a rampage and absorbed the blood of some particularly powerful individuals (gods and god-like level demons, dragons, and sorcerers) turning her into something of an Eldritch Abomination.
  • More Kraziness (and yes you can call me crazy with a K): Noob Saibot (just see his ending from MK9)
  • For your Cnowledge (what? Expecting more Krazed spellings?): Ermac. Basically imagine a reversal of its arcade ending from MK9 where instead of the soul of Jerrod becoming the dominate one in charge of Ermac, but instead an evil soul (perhaps that of the deceased Shang Tsung or some totally new individual who's existence was unknown until this upcoming game) gained control and somehow gained more souls and power by the time the story of MKX begins. This character may even be among the group of protagonists through out the game and not reveal its true goals until near the very end.
  • More Cilograms of madness: Goro. In his ending (available in the Komplete Edition of the game), it was stated that he used the slain Emperor Shao Kahn's blood to become "Drathon, the Destroyer Prince."
    • More than likely jossed, given that Goro is slated to be a DLC character.
  • Another Insane guess: Johnny Cage. Imagine if a combination of A God Am I, With Great Power Comes Great Insanity, and dealing with the grief of his lost friends during the events of MK9 and other developments (such as his wife Sonya's death at some point after the birth of their child) before and during MKX causes him to go mad and become a Knight Templar Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds intent on doing whatever is necessary to protect his only child, even if it means exterminating all life outside of Earthrealm in order to prevent any sort of inter-realm invasion from ever happening again. The final battle of the Story Mode, if this prediction does come to pass, could be between Cassie and Johnny.
  • Belokk, Monster or some other NPC (e.g. an opponent from the Mortal Kombat 9's Challenge Tower)
  • Hsu Hao... I got nothing other than to say that it would be to provide players the opportunity to kill someone no one would feel guilty about beating and killing.
  • Rain: Again as with Noob Saibot, just see Rain's MK9 ending.
  • Damn, this one's skary to think of: Mileena. Imagine a modified version of her MK9 ending in which she is used as a means of providing Shang Tsung a way to cheat death by possessing her. As the possessed Mileena begins absorbing souls to become as powerful as possible and perhaps, if her ending is anything to go by, also gunning for Raiden's soul as the top prize. Someone manages to exorcise her of the sorcerer's spirit midway in the story, but by then it is too late and she has completely gone insane trying to continue to absorb as many souls as possible.
  • Meat: At first being a Soul Jar for Shang Tsung, but then gaining his own consciousness and seeks to pursue his own goals.
  • Kano: See his MK9 ending.
  • Dark Kahn as a Canon Immigrant, but with a very different backstory than the one in MKvsDC.
  • Hornbuckle purely so he can actually appear in a game for once.
  • Jade: Even though she was killed by Sindel in Mortal Kombat 9, her ending, in which she seems to become possessed by some unknown woman, seems to strongly imply some sort of Sequel Hook. Also worth mentioning that even though Quan Chi has possession of her and others' souls, bodies were not specified as part of the pact between Shao Kahn and the Netherrealm, so perhaps the mysterious woman is using Jade's body as a vessel for herself.

Cassie Cage has a middle name that's some variation of Jackson.

Jax is Sonya's trusted partner, and fought alongside Johnny with the occasional road bump. Normally, Johnny might not be too keen on naming his kid after a guy who beat the crap out of him over some mildly lewd comments, but Jax died in Sindel's massacre, so he's likely more open to the idea.

• Such as "Jacqueline", or rather "Jaxeline"?
  • With the appearance of Jacqui Briggs - Jax's biological daughter - in the prequel comics, which also confirm Jax is back from the dead, this seems unlikely.
    • We have no idea as to what Cassie's middle name is, but here's a twist: Jax gave Jacqueline Sonya as a middle name.

Ferra is older than she looks.

Boon seems awfully careful about calling her "the lady" instead of "the girl"...

• Chances are that she might be from a realm other than Earthrealm. She's just a midget.
• Confirmed. Boon says Ferra is an adult, albeit small in stature.

At the beginning of the story, Outworld will be in a state of civil war.

With Shao Kahn dead, there's no reason for the Tarkatans, Shokans, Centaurs and the rest of Kahn's minions to remain as allies. Each of those groups will be making plays for dominance in his absence.

• Confirmed via the prequel comics.

Everyone will have at least three costumes.

One to feel most "suitable" for each variation. Cassie Cage, for example — her default costume would be best suited for Spec Ops, while having a more martial arts-ish attire for Brawler, and her Hollywood variation would look the most... well, Hollywood.

• In the game as of current, each variation has an additional costume piece or costume change that reflects the chosen variation, and this works on top of each unlockable costume you pick for characters. If you also include the "vanilla" version of a character with no variations, you get four costumes per costume.

MKX will have elements of Postmodernism along the lines of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

The Creators so far have confirmed that the story in MKX will be more serious than the last game (though not entirely without humor). I predict that there will be some about of deconstruction of the archetypes of the series and plenty of Leaning on the Fourth Wall with some characters expressing anger about how the gods have ruined their lives for the art of entertainment and taking a potshot at people who find amusement in other people's suffering as being simply puppets at the hands of lesser gods.

Stage Guesses:

• Netherrealm: 1) It's a classic. 2) Scorpion is still around. 3) It's the namesake of the studio. 4) And so on and so forth.
  • A possible version of this may be resembling Terry Bogard's train stages from Fatal Fury 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves, it could be called Netherrealm Express.
  • The "Krossroads" stage revealed in Kombat Kast 3 is all but outright stated to be located in the Netherrealm, as its aesthetics match up nicely.
• Beetle Lair: Reimagined returning location repurposed as home stage for D'Vorah?
• Pool Pit: The Pit meets Dead Pool. Not only will the Stage Fatality impale you with spikes, but you'll slide down those spikes into acid.
• Kotal's Temple: Something Aztec-y and befitting of Kotal Kahn's motif. Stage Fatality could be either a sacrificial altar or throwing the opponent down the extremely steep steps.
  • No specific temple as yet, but the new "Jungle" stage includes the Outworld equivalent of Mayincatec structures.
• Lung Hai Temple: If only because it'd allow Boon & co. to finally implement that Stage Fatality they originally envisioned (as mentioned in concept art unlocked in the Krypt), wherein the Great Sea Dragon of Outworld rises from the sea to devour the unlucky party.
• Sky Temple/Raiden's Temple: Even on the off-chance Raiden doesn't make the MKX roster, the heroes allied under him need a new (and more secure) base of operations, right? Plus, both stages are described as places of meditation for the thunder god; given the events of 9, Raiden's going to have a lot to dwell on. The former could keep its Tower of Terror Ring Out drop from Deception as a Stage Fatality as well as have the War Hammer as an interactive element.
  • Sky Temple confirmed in Kombat Kast 8.
• Slaughterhouse: There's a good chance the Netherrealm will be revisited here, and, according to the stage bio, it's set in Nekros, the city that the Elder Sub-Zero traveled to in Mythologies (which also appears to be Shinnok's citadel or a similarly important locale). Thematically, it could work. There were already steel grinders as a stage hazard, so all you need to do is spice up the presentation for a Stage Fatality.
• The Void: Depending on how successful Shinnok's Rage Against the Elder Gods plan is, he may decide to take the fight to them. Expect a Big Badass Battle Sequence as the stage's backdrop... and a literal (and messy) fall from grace if you're the loser.

Assumptions for "-alities"

Boon said that MKX will have a new form of "-ality" with this game in addition to Fatalities, as opposed to something like Babalities. This likely also rules out other past "-alities" like Brutality, Animality, and maybe even Friendship. Here's where we guess as to what this new "-ality" will be.

• Equality: Calling it a draw? Mutual kill?
• Hospitality: New name for Friendship?
  • Whimsicality: Alternative to the above, only with the quirkiness and comedic tone turned up to new heights of brain-bending stupidity.
    • That would be Comicality.
• Nationality: Wrapping oneself in or planting a flag?
• Immortality: Using sorcery to preserve the opponent's life even after mutilating them?
• Instrumentality: "Congratulations, [insert kombatant name here]!" Tang ensues.
• Fartality: A Take That!/Shout-Out to Tattoo Assassins, where the opponent is finished with a lethal fart!
• Reciprocality: Finishing an opponent with his/her own Fatality.
• Friendship: If they're willing to bring back Babalities for MK9, they might as well give us the return of Friendships.
• Brutality: Aside from jokes, this is the most likely one. A tweet from Ed back around the time MK9 was out revealed that they wanted to put brutalities in MK9, but weren't able to "complete it" (whatever that means). Also, Ed has said that the new Ality will in fact be an old returning one. Given the tone they're going for in MKX, brutalities are the main suspect here.
  • Confirmed! Brutalities are back, albeit in a different form than the one in MK3.
• Hara-Kiri: Hara-Kiris, death traps, and Create-a-Fatalities are also past -alities. Given that Create-a-Fatalities would be too much work and we've seen nothing to indicate death traps, Hara-Kiris seem likely too.
• Here's one that's been confirmed on Kombat Kast 6: Quitality. In short, if someone goes and ragequits in a match, their character's head explodes and the other player wins.

Shinnok will be a Disc-One Final Boss who will also be a playable character like Shang-Tsung in MK9.

Ed Boon said that the final boss of MKX will be a "surprise returning character", ruling out Shinnok. It's also been confirmed that MKX will happen across 25 years. MK9 ended with most of Earthrealm's defenders, Shao Kahn, and Shang-Tsung all dead, putting the Netherrealm in a good position to conquer both Earthrealm and Outworld. There's no way that Shinnok would wait 25 years to conquer Earthrealm and Outworld, so Shinnok has to have his invasion happen but be stopped before 25 years have passed. As for Shinnok being playable, Shinnok in his humanoid form (remember that the dragon that is part of MK's logo resembles what the Elder Gods really look like) is not any taller than Raiden, and he was playable in MK4.

• Confirmed! Click here for major spoilers about part 1 of Story Mode, but it does cement Shinnok as being the last obstacle you have to fight before he gets sealed in his own amulet.

Kano will have a protege, successor, or an otherwise younger Black Dragon member who will be Cassie's rival.

Kano was one of the less mystical characters, being a criminal strengthened by technology instead of magic. Unless he's used cybernetics to enhance himself even further to keep himself on the level, then you can be sure he'll age through MKX. A major part of Kano's character is his rivalry with Sonya. It's doubtful that the Black Dragon won't have a presence after 25 years have passed. A younger Black Dragon member (maybe a revamped Kobra or Kira) will be around to be Cassie's rival, with Kano and a revamped Jarek (if he appears) to guide said member.

Several suggestions for MKX's final boss have been deconfirmed by Ed Boon, especially Liu Kang.

Ed Boon explicitly said that MKX's final boss will be a "FUN" returning character. Keyword: fun. Fighting a undead or deified Liu Kang or Dark Raiden would be tragic events.

• Could the OP or anyone for that matter provide the quote in question, because saying that the boss character will be fun could mean anything. It could just mean that it won't be another brick wall of a Mighty Glacier like Shao Kahn. Not saying that he/she will be some who can be taken lightly, but perhaps someone who would be entertaining to fight instead of having to do so something boringly repetitive (shoot Shao Kahn at distance, shoot at distance, shoot at distance, dodge while shooting, upper cut him, get away, shoot, shoot, shoot, dodge, uppercut, maybe throw in an X-ray, rinse and repeat for about five minutes.)
  • Ed Boon said that Big Bad will be a "fun, surprise returning character" in this interview. You can rule out Shinnok, Liu Kang, etc., since none of them would be surprising, let alone how fun any of them are.
    • But has he specified whether he means fun in terms of personality or play-style?
    • Also, could you provide some objective proof that Liu Kang wouldn't be fun to fight? Because a LOT of fans will likely disagree with you there.

The story line of MKX will involve some sort of Mandarin ploy

Returning character A will claim to be Big Bad, only to be revealed to be a Red Herring for returning character B who is the real antagonist who in turn is being manipulated by Shinnok and Quan Chi.

Some Examples:

Character A->Character B (AKA Real Villian)

• Chameleon-> Liu Kang
  • Scenario: Chameleon, going by the alias of "The Dragon", has been taking other fighter's abilities for himself and seeks to assimilate all powers and techniques into himself to become the Ultimate Lifeform. However he is later discovered to simply serve as a distraction for the Real Dragon, Liu Kang.

• Liu Kang-> Johnny Cage
  • Scenario: Liu Kang has been on a campaign of terror to punish Outworld for its invasion of Earthrealm. However upon being defeated he is revealed to only be acting on behalf of Johnny Cage (See Big Bad speculation above to see how this can make sense).

• Goro (AKA Drathon, the Destroyer Prince)->???
  • Scenario: Following the death of Shao Kahn, Goro used the slain Emperor's blood to become Drathon and lead a campaign to rid the Shokan of their Centaur enemies. However, he is later revealed to not be Drathon at all, but that someone else is the Prophesied Drathon.

The Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions of the game will feature a Killer Instinct character

Either Jago or Fulgore are the two most likely out of all of them to appear.

• Or Orchid, being the closest character KI has to a main character.

Kotal Kahn has no connection to Shao Kahn and is from a realm that resembles the Aztec empire but was later fused with Outworld

Somehow he ended up in Earthrealm and the Aztecs began to worship him as a god-king.

• Confirmed. The prequel comics establish the realm is Osh-Tekk and it is fused with Outworld. Kotal ends up in Earthrealm by using a portal gem and is worshipped by the Mayans as a War God.

Reiko is either the returning Big Bad, Kotal Kahn or has some kind of involvement in Shao Kahn's affairs

In his original pitched storyline in Mortal Kombat 4, it was supposed to be implied that he was being used as a vessel/being possessed by Shao Kahn as a means of keeping him from death. People didn't like that, so he was changed to just really....really........really having a thing for the big guy. With the new continuity, maybe they're going to try the plot out again and see where it gets them this time.

• So far, the prequel comics have established he's one of Mileena's generals and he may be using her for his own means.

Stage Fatalities

List ideas for potential stage fatalities for known stages here.

• The Kove: thrown into the zombie-infested waters to be killed by said zombies
• Outworld Market: being fed to or mauled by the tiger-like creature
• Krossroads: Come on! That river of lava is just begging to have someone fall into it!
• Sadly, stage fatalities have been jossed for MKX.

Mortal Kombat X is Ed Boon's vision that was to occur in the scrapped Mortal Kombat 8

There's a reason why Mortal Kombat: Armageddon had every single playable character from the the previous games featured: In Ed Boon's vision, the game was to pull a Torch the Franchise and Run with a new generation cast of characters for the next game by killing off nearly everyone present at the conflict. However, the intended next game was scrapped in favor of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe after Midway signed a deal with DC Comics. Even after that game was finished and the series was picked up by Warner Bros. after Midway fell, however, Ed Boon decided to change his vision by pulling a Continuity Reboot on the franchise by means of Mortal Kombat 9 as opposed to start directly from where Armageddon left off, and have the "new generation" cast of characters he desired established by means of having Sindel kill of the majority of the heroes.

Who will be facing agaisnt Big Bad in Final Story...

Coming to the point where in final history mode, the character supposed be The Chosen One defeat agaisnt Big Bad of game, altrought in canon Liu Kang is only win Mortal Kombat for 4 times but that not meaning stopped do more tournament. In Retcon Mortal Kombat 9 only person can be defeat Big Bad, are were Elders Gods... altrought not helped for Shinnok for well...

• Cassie Cage
  • She be only one born after events of Mortal Kombat 9, idea that she defeat final agaisnt own father, Johnny Cage. For bigger connection they had in this game, Cassie maybe be only come to reason with his father or maybe not...
  • Confirmed: Cassie faces off against Corrupted Shinnok.
• Raiden
  • After all everything he do in past game, Raiden is only one finish can beat Shao Kahn for help of Elders Gods, altrought...
• Kai (If it he confirmed in this game)
  • In original is was the disciple of Liu Kang according Mortal Kombat 4. After Retcon of predecessor game, maybe he becoming disciple of Raiden in this game for defeat Liu Kang.

Kano will kill Sonya in the story mode

Thus giving Cassie a reason to fight him (and, if you believe the above speculation that Johnny Cage will be the Big Bad of the story, justification for that as well).

• (sniff sniff) Smells like Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome.

Elements of past characters will given to other characters

Kano's cybernetic heart is obviously a nod to Hsu-Hao. Going from this, be it to reuse elements of characters without going through the trouble of revamping those characters, or just wanting to keep the roster from getting out of hand, at least a few characters in the roster will have elements of past characters. Possible examples are:

• D'Vorah: Summons flies like Drahmin.
• Ferra & Tor: Combines some of the Dual Boss aspects of Noob-Smoke, plus the stature of Moloch.
• Kano: Has Hsu-Hao's cybernetic heart, and some of his grapple moves.
• Scorpion: His Inferno variation gets a minion similar to Noob Saibot's.
• Cassie Cage: Reuses elements of both Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade.
  • At least one confirmation not mentioned above; Kitana will use Jade's old moves in her Mourning variation. Cassie has Johnny's moves as her Hollywood variation, and apparently some of Jax's too.
• Johnny Cage and Shinnok: Noob Saibot (Johnny's Stuntman variation) and Shang Tsung (Shinnok's Imposter variation)

Mileena is the new queen of Outworld

A lot of people died in MK9's story, however, to this troper's knowledge, Mileena wasn't one of them. However, all of the other members of the "Royal Family", I guess is what you'd call it, did. Shao Kahn died, obviously. Sindel died, and Kitanna died. The only other person in the "tree" at all is Mileena, which should make her queen by default!

What Mileena would do with this new-found power I'm not sure of, but It's got to be used in the story somehow!

• Kotal Kahn is the new ruler of Outworld. That doesn't mean he'd necessarily be the rightful one, however.
  • Shao Kahn became emperor by killing the previous one and not because of his lineage. In Outworld might makes right.
  • The prequel comics have revealed that Kotal Kahn and Mileena are locked in a war for the throne. Mileena has allied herself with the Red Dragon and Kotal Kahn tries to invoke an Enemy Mine situation with Earthrealm.
  • And Kitana made it Back from the Dead anyway...
    • And if Reptile's dialogue is anything to go by, Kotal Kahn seems to want her, possibly for "legitimacy" reasons in opposition of Mileena.

MKX's Kung Lao is a revived Great Kung Lao

What if, instead of the Kung Lao from MK9 reviving, there's been some magical hoo-hah that has separated the original Great Kung Lao from his reincarnation and restored him to life? Not only could that explain his significantly aged appearance, but it could result in very interesting dialogue between other characters, particularly the Goro DLC.

Sub-Zero's fatality is a deliberate Shout-Out to The Running Man

"But I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your goddamn spine!"

Factions of the Outworld Civil War

• Team Kotal Kahn
  • D'vorah (confirmed in the comic)
  • Erron Black (Makes a cameo in the story trailer)
  • Ermac (Confirmed via the story trailer)
  • Reptile (Comic, game dialogue and the story trailer confirm him too)
• Team Mileena
  • Reiko (implied to be lovers in a comic book panel)
  • Goro (shown to be an ally in the comic book)
  • Ferra/Torr (given that Ferra is at the very least opposed to Kotal Kahn)
    • Perhaps not - or not for the entire story. She fights alongside Kotal's forces in a prequel comic.
  • Rain (makes a brief but recognisable cameo in the story trailer)
• Special Forces (this one's been all but confirmed by the recent story trailer)
  • Cassie Cage
  • Jacqui Briggs
  • Takashi Takeda
  • Kung Jin

Alternate costumes that we've already seen

In the Kombat Kast 2 stream, it was strongly implied that some of the costumes we've seen are not the main costumes, but the alternate costumes. With that in mind, let's guess on which costumes are actually alternates.

• Ermac (his reveal costume highly resembles his alternate from MK9)
• Kitana (this troper believes her main will be more... "traditional")
• Cassie Cage (in an inversion of her mother, having a more casual main costume?)
  • Confirmed, somewhat. Her spec-ops suit seems to be her primary outfit but her alternate◊ is indeed a more casual jogger's outfit.

D'vorah has multiple bodies, or there are multiple D'vorahs

The way how she refers to herself as "this one" vaguely implies such. A statement like "You offend this one" or "This one happily dies for the Emperor" suggest that maybe THIS particular version feels that way, but one of her other versions might not.

Quan Chi is trying to revive Shao Kahn

In the as-yet-unnamed stage that is pretty obviously Quan Chi's lair, there are displays containing Shao Kahn's armour and an interactive one containing his Wrath Hammer. In the middle of the stage? An oversized version of Meat. How many characters are that big without being a four-armed Shokan or winged Dragon King?

The refugee woman in the "Who's Next?" story trailer is Li Mei

Given that her backstory more or less amounts to "Outworld villager dragged into major events", the refugee's story fits the bill. It would also double as a way to cameo a no-longer-kombatant without specifically killing them off, plus showing how the timeline differences have altered her fate.

• Boon did hint at her appearing
  • Confirmed in Chapter 3.

Freddy Krueger will at least make a cameo in Jason's arcade ending.

Even if Freddy isn't coming back as a playable character, it would be a missed opportunity to not reference his and Jason's history together when he's already made an appearance in the game right before this one.

• Jossed. Freddy is completely absent from Jason's arcade ending, although Jason does go to the Netherrealm, the equivalent of Hell, killing Liu Kang in the process.

Raiden will save the day by doing a Face–Heel Turn.

He's going to go "If I'm no good at being good, I must be good at being bad," only to screw up the evil factions' plans to the point where the protagonists just steamroll the opposition.

• Alternatively, he stays good, but tries to "help" the villains, counting on his propensity towards screwing up to do the trick.
• Eventually semi-confirmed. He saves the day by making a Heroic Sacrifice that, like the last timeline, corrupts him into Dark Raiden, but does not align with the evil factions.

There will be a "GET TO THE CHOPPA!!" joke somewhere

Because there's a Predator, and Arnie starred in one of its movie installment. Maybe Johnny Cage will say it?

• Johnny does say "Gotta get back to the chopper" in Chapter 1, so... confirmed?

One of Liu Kang's Brutalities will be the MK3-style Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs move.

Why? Because the original Brutalities were an obvious nod to Fist of the North Star and Kenshiro's Hokuto Hyakuretsu-Ken technique, and Kenshiro, like Liu Kang, is a Bruce Lee Clone. It all comes full circle.

• Would put this down as likely when using his "Fire Fists" variation. The Windmill Punches will probably be able to create such a scenario.

Kung Jin is Fujin's human form.

The names are similar and both of them use bows and arrows as a signature weapon.

• Seems improbable. Recorded dialogue between the two enforce the premise of the two being cousins, and given how much Kung Lao gives a crap about his ancestor 600 years back, I imagine he's intimately familiar enough with his family line to not buy an excuse of "Here's a random cousin that you've never heard of before."
  • Jossed. Kung Jin is Kung Lao's cousin.

Predator's Variations will be Jungle Hunter, City Hunter, and Alien Hunter

Each variation will slightly alter his armor to look like the predators from the different films. Additionally, his alternate outfit will be Berserker.

• Jossed. His variations are Hunter, Warrior, and Hish-Qu-Ten.

Jason's Alternate outfit will be Jason X

Say what you will about the movie's quality, but in a game called Mortal Kombat X, it's just too perfect.

• Even better, since the "X" in both titles carries the dual meaning of "next" and "ten."
• Alternatively, "Jason X" will be one of Jason's variations, rather than a costume.
• Jossed on both accounts.

Similar to the Freddy Krueger WMG above, the Predator's ending will hint at the Xenomorphs

Possibly even setting up a playable appearance in a future Mortal Kombat title.

• Sadly, Jossed.
• Although I was right about the Xenomorph part, eventually.

When one relative kills another, one of them is actually a "fake".

A lot of the mirror match quotes imply that the two versions fight to the death to see who's the real one. If, say, Cassie headshots Johnny, it's because she realized over the course of the fight that her opponent isn't really her father and killed him out of suspicion. Still really fucked up, but not to the extent of actual familicide. It's just as disturbing if the duplicate wins, though.

• Some of the mirror match quotes imply that Shang Tsung is alive and assuming the shapes of other Kombatants. Impersonating loved ones and inviting them to "train" would be a good way to get rid of certain threats...

There will be DLC kostumes based on Mortal Kombat: Legacy

Similar to the Arrow outfit from Injustice: Gods Among Us, they could replace the characters' regular VA with their Legacy actor when the kostume is used.

The Shinnok shown so far is actually his duplicate

Armageddon established that Shinnok can create a clone of himself to do his bidding. The clone getting sealed in the Amulet was all part of his plan, perhaps an attempt to gain control of the Kamidogu. Meanwhile, the real Shinnok is pulling the strings in the Netherrealm without anyone knowing, perhaps even Quan Chi. Thus, Ed Boon was playing us all for fools and Shinnok is the actual Final Boss. Perhaps his demon form, but he will finally be able to show the full power of his Amulet.

• Remember that his stance during his fight with Johnny Cage was "Imposter" ? It is likely that it is meant as a subtle foreshadowing that the Shinnok Cage fought really was his duplicate.

Gemini from Mortal Kombat: Special Forces is Jacqui's mother

• Unless Word of God outright says "no", I think it would be hard to disprove this idea. Even though her name was mentioned, "Gemini" could just as easily be a codename and not her real name, just how "Jax" is properly named Jackson Briggs.

Jade's soul was fused into Kitana

This could A) explain why she's so skilled at using her weapons, B) provide an excuse for a lack of reappearance, and C) be explained in-story as Quan Chi trying to bolster Kitana in the same manner that Sindel was enhanced in MK9.

The revived Kombatants are still under Shinnok's/Quan Chi's control.

They just loosened the leash, as it were, to lure Raiden and his allies into having false hope. When the time is right, they'll be enslaved once more, ensuring a massive Tear Jerker moment.

• Semi-confirmed. Though Quan Chi doesn't loosen the leash to lure Raiden into having a false sense of hope, many of the revenants have been brainwashed to serve Shinnok and Quan Chi. Raiden does manage to revive Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Jax, but before he could do anything on the remaining revenants, Scorpion just kills off Quan Chi before understanding why the sorcerer was needed, thereby dooming Liu Kang and the remaining fallen heroes to stay as these for the time being. And with Raiden now corrupted and willing to go on the warpath, it seems unlikely that the revenants would be able to be restored to the side of good (Kung Lao's and Kung Jin's arcade endings indicate that it's possible for the revenants to pull a Heel–Face Turn, but it's highly impossible to do so without being able to embrace positive emotions as Quan Chi brainwashed them to the point of having extreme hatred and as the necromancer was Killed Off for Real.)

Takeda will be shipped with Frost

Takeda, being the successor to Scorpion, and Frost, successor to Sub-Zero, will be romantically shipped in this timeline, thus adding Belligerent Sexual Tension to their rivalry come MK 11...

• Jossed (thankfully); Takeda has a relationship with Jacqui Briggs instead.

Post-Release

Ssapo will be a Guest Fighter

• Because Lord Ssapo.

The next game will combine both the story elements of Deadly Alliance and Deception

And clearly because of the change in the timeline, most of the elements will change, the major events will still remain the same. For instance, the forming of the Deadly Alliance, the discovery of the Soulnado and Onagas invincible army and the resurrection of Onaga.

• Well someone is going to take Liu Kang's place and get killed off if the events of Deadly Alliance is to follow. Also, while you might not realize it, elements of Deception has been played in X, being that a mass amount of heroes getting killed and enslaved to the villains (Shinnok instead of Onaga).
• Actually, Soulnado was already discovered. By Quan Chi and Noob Saibot in MK9. It costed Noob's soul to stop the Soulnado.

There will be a new Deadly Alliance in the next game

Since both Shang Tsung and Quan Chi are dead (though likely temporarily due to the Death Is Cheap nature of Mortal Kombat), two or more characters will still form it. Contenders for the alliance are:

• Rain and Reiko (unless Reiko dies during the MKX comics): Due to both of them desiring rulership of Outworld, and will try to use Onaga's army to overthrow Kotal Kahn, possibly due to the rebel forces being depleted and shattered after Mileena's death.
  • In light of Issue #29, this looks to be jossed as Reiko is very likely to have been killed barring any other side effects of the Blood Code.
• Kotal Kahn and Havik (unless Havik dies during the MKX comics): Kotal Kahn will likely resume hostilities with Earthrealm. Havik, wanting to spread more Chaos as he did in the comics, will inform Kotal about the army and suggests that he uses it on the forces of Earthrealm.
  • This one and any involving Havik seem to be jossed based on his scene in the comics showing him being killed by Quan Chi.
• Raiden and Liu Kang: Playing against type, it will be a more aggressive Raiden and Netherrealm Emperor Liu Kang going on the offensive against a more defensive Outworld, with Kotal Kahn serving not as the Big Bad, but the Big Good!
  • Alternatively, Liu Kang and Kitana may serve as the deadly alliance by themselves.
  • On the hand, it could consist of Raiden and Hotaru (read the "The Seidan military will be enlisted to serve MK11's Big Bad" post below for details). Perhaps they will also have a fake Deadly Alliance in the vein of the Injustice League the Light created in Young Justice (2010) to fool the heroes into believing the threat is over.
• Darrius and Havik (If Seido returns to prominence in the new timeline): They could be willing to strike up an alliance based upon their mutual disfavor of the Seidan government. In exchange for Havik and other Chaosrealmers assisting in Darrius's bid to overthrow Seido's tyrannical regime and replace it with a more democratic system, Darrius will have Seido's occupying forces removed from Chaosrealm. In the process, they could seek to revive Onaga's army to aid in that endeavor.
• Noob Saibot and Havik: Given that Noob Saibot is absent in MKX, the creators might be saving him for a more prominent role in a sequel with a plot based in part on Noob's MK9 ending in which he forged an alliance with Havik to take over the Netherrealm.
• Skarlet and Havik: In chapter 18 of the MKX comics, the former asks the latter to teach her how to use Blood Magik. While it maybe resolved in the comics, this storyline could also be used to introduce plot elements for this game's sequel.
• Reiko and Havik: They have been cooperating in the comics, so the writers maybe intending to set them up as the next game's version of the Deadly Alliance.
  • In light of Issue #29, this looks to be jossed as Reiko is very likely to have been killed barring any other side effects of the Blood Code.
• Based on the ending of the MKX #36 (Fight to the Finish), the last of the comics, the new Deadly Alliance might be Daegon and Goro.
• Other miscellaneous individuals who could join to form a new Deadly Alliance: Tanya (her arcade ending in which she turns herself in and betrays Rain in exchange for Kotal Kahn lightening her sentence to life imprisonment instead of death also mentions that she is using her time in prison to craft new schemes, thus strongly implying some role of importance for her in the future); Shang Tsung (Assuming that Ermac's ending is confirmed as canon in the future, he may pursue a new bid for power now that other notable villains are out of the picture and may choose work with someone else (e.g. Havik, Tanya, etc); D'Vorah.

While we're at it, who could be some potential targets of a new Deadly Alliance to seek to assassinate?

• Kotal Kahn
• A member of the Netherrealm's new leadership (though they can't be killed due to being already dead, perhaps they'll be compromised in some other way (e.g. kidnapped or put under some sort of spell) or perhaps in an interesting reversal, a new Deadly Alliance resurrects an old deceased foe (e.g. Shang Tsung and/or Quan Chi) and Liu Kang will go on a warpath in retaliation for this transgression on his newfound domain).
• Sonya Blade (as a high ranking member of the U.S. military, she could be a potential target).
• Johnny Cage (If this one detail of his MK9 arcade ending is to be believed, he has the potential to become the most powerful being in existence. A new Deadly Alliance with knowledge of that would likely want to prevent him from ever tapping into and mastering that potential).
• A leader of resistance to Kotal Kahn's rule of a united Outworld such as Goro or Rain.

Somewhere along the line, maybe not in the next game, there will be another reboot for the ultimate Golden Ending

Done by either Raiden or Liu Kang, the latter who received tremendous power after being the Emperor of the Netherrealm. Basically, it's the same old song of My God, What Have I Done? and sending message to the past... but they did it before committing suicide, seeing that there is no hope in the whole thing. However, unlike first timeline Dark Raiden, they have more freedom to give a better message, so they don't screw up. Like: Tell Raiden that they should let Liu Kang win the first Mortal Kombat tournament, but then forfeit at the second one so Shao Kahn is immediately eliminated. Or just let him win the third one, but take extra caution on Sindel so she doesn't roflstomp the heroes again. Or, make capturing Quan Chi a high priority and kill him before he can plot whatever (but mostly at the second tourney so we do get both Noob Saibot and Sub-Zero). All that would end up uniting Earthrealm, Outworld, Edenia and others to stand against Shinnok, but also future threats like Onaga and Blaze, and preventing that timeline's Raiden to take the Dark Raiden path, thus ensuring a Golden Ending. Or even, they could just send this message: "The Elder Gods are a bunch of lazy dicks. Don't listen to them too much!"

I know it's a cheesy one, but it'd be one big Earn Your Happy Ending, after several times resetting timelines, they could finally get things right and deserving a big rest.

• Or inversely, there will be the revelation that multiple people have been resetting the timeline in an attempt to thwart Armageddon only for it to occur by other means anyway and also that a potential MK11 to have the theme that You Can't Fight Fate.

Armageddon cannot be averted.

Over the course of the past two games, events have played out in a similar (if slightly altered) manner as the original timeline: from the previous game, the events of the first game remained unaltered, the events of Mortal Kombat II played out in the same way as originally (aside from Kung Lao's death and Sub-Zero's Unwilling Roboticization), and Shao Kahn still invaded Earthrealm as he did in Mortal Kombat 3, except this time around, almost all of Earthrealm's champions died in the process. The events of this game played out in a similar fashion to Mortal Kombat 4, being largely centered around Shinnok's plot to wage war against the Elder Gods (albeit further into the future than previously). In the end, he was defeated, but Raiden's exposure to his corruption when he cleansed the Jinsei have caused him to become a less benevolent, more threatening god, not unlike what would happen over the course of Deadly Alliance and Deception. The more things change in this new timeline, the more they seem to stay the same: the original timeline's Raiden has not stopped Armageddon. He could do naught but delay it.

• Not to mention, Sindel has taken the place of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung in Deadly Alliance when she mass-murdered the heroes in 9, then Shinnok, with the help of Quan Chi, took the place of Onaga in enslaving the slain heroes. If anything, they are closer to Armageddon than they thought. Perhaps if they truly wish to avoid Armageddon, someone needs an earlier My God, What Have I Done?, give up on the world and send a more proper message to yet another timeline, instead of original Raiden's mere "He must win" (though in his defense, he really don't have much time until Shao Kahn would bash his skull). See the above WMG for more details.
• A minor quibble about this point is that, in the original timeline, Armageddon was caused by the extremely high amount of powerful warriors. If anything, the deaths which happened between 9 and X (including the comics) may indicate that Armageddon may never trigger at all. Of course, this is Mortal Kombat, a.k.a. "Death Is Cheap: The Game", and everything can happen.
• At the same time, however, the relatively smaller number of kombatants are much more diverse, and more powerful. Destruction and Armageddon could be caused by the clash of a small number of supremely powerful fighters: it's like swapping out several bombers carpet-bombing the realms with a handful of nukes.

The next game will be a Crisis Crossover with the original timeline

This game has included Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Kitana being perfectly normal, living being, even if they never turn back into living beings and stayed revenants, with Liu Kang and Kitana leading the Netherrealm in the ending. And even then, with the pre-match quotes, their personalities seem... different. Kung Lao seemed to be more respectful on Raiden instead of blaming him for getting his neck snapped by Shao Kahn (which his revenant did), and his appearance and Liu Kang's is that of an aged version of themselves. Along with other dialogues that did not match with what happens in Story Mode (Scorpion and Sub-Zero still hating each other, multiple Mileena and Kano, Raiden facing off with Dark Raiden), this might be a sequel/DLC hook that for some reason, characters from various timelines are dragged into this timeline and a problem will arise. For instance, Old Liu Kang might meet Revenant Liu Kang and have a baffled reaction...

Potential Factions and Goals in MK11

1. Forces of "Light"

• Members: Dark Raiden, White Lotus Society (including Kai?), Shirai Ryu (including Scorpion?) and Ashrah(?).
• Goals: Taking a more aggressive, pre-emptive action in defense of Earthrealm against threats (e.g. A new Deadly Alliance, Onaga, and/or the Red Dragon). However, this could change as Raiden decides to take matters into his own hands, pursue his own bid to go on a warpath against other realms, mercilessly cleanse all evil and thus become the Big Bad of MK11.

2. Netherrealm

• Members: Emperor Liu Kang and Empress Kitana, Kung Lao, Smoke, Kabal, Nightwolf, Sindel, Jade (?), Gorbak, and Kurtis Stryker.
• Goals: Exacting justice in harsh, strict ways as the new rulers see fit. Possibly could also be in co-operation with Dark Raiden depending on what the spoiler-protected individual may offer.

3. Outworld Empire

• Members: Kotal Kahn, Reptile, Ermac, Erron Black, Ferra/Torr, and former Shokan separatist Sheeva and Bo' Rai Cho (?).
• Goals: Defending Outworld from new threats (e.g. A new Deadly Alliance, Onaga, the Red Dragon, and maybe even defending against Dark Raiden and his forces if the spoiler protected individual believe that omnicidally destroying all of Outworld will be a better course of action than devoting time and resources to hunting down enemies).

4. Special Forces and Its Associate Observers

• Members: Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Kenshi Takahashi, Jax (?), and Li Mei (?)
• Goals: Protecting the United States and the rest of Earth from threats. Possibly could manipulated into working with Dark Raiden.

5. Cassie's Team

• Members: Cassie Cage, Jacqui Briggs, Kung Jin, Takeda Takahashi
• Goals: Each individual may go out on their own goals such as Jin seeking to redeem Lao and the Takahashis pursuing the Red Dragon.

6. Black Dragon

• Members: Kano, Jarek, Kira, Kobra, Tremor (?)
• Goals: Possibly seek to break Kano out of prison. Possible that an internal struggle for leadership will occur between Jarek (as the known highest ranked still living member), "Kano Jr." (shown in Kano's ending), and maybe even Tremor.

7. Red Dragon

• Members: Daegon, Goro (based on the end of the MKX comics), unknown others, Mysterious Woman(?)
• Goals: Putting the events leading to Armageddon in motion so as to allow Daegon to achieve godhood. Possibly also retrieve and repair Shinnok's dismembered body.

8. Lin Kuei

• Members: Kuai Liang, Frost, and Sareena (?)
• Goals: Try to save Bi-han, and protecting Earthrealm.

9. Brotherhood of the Shadow and Anti-Kotal Outworld agents/pawns.

• Members: Noob Saibot (?), Tanya (?), Rain (?), and D'Vorah.
• Goals: As result of Shinnok being dismembered and thus out of commission for the foreseeable future and the Necromancer Quan Chi being killed by Hanzo Hasashi, the Brotherhood of the Shadow looks like it will go on to be disbanded and its known still living members (Tanya, D'Vorah, and possibly Noob Saibot whose survival remains still unconfirmed) and associates (Rain) will be going their separate ways.

10. Chaosrealm

• Members: Havik (?) And Shujinko (?) and Skarlet (?)
• Goals: Keeping hostilities between the aforementioned feuding factions going so as to prevent Order from being restored.

11. Mysterious Woman in White (Possessing Jade in MK9 and Kitana in MKX Arcade endings)

• Associates: ???
• Goals:

12. Onaga's Holy men

• Members: Damashi (Onaga), Holy men, and Blaze (unwillingly)
• Goals: Bring Onaga back from the dead and help Onaga regain his title as Emperor and his kingdom.

13. Vaetarnusians

• Members: Nitara
• Goals: Achieving Vaetarnus's independence as she sought in the original timeline. Possibly may lay such ambitions aside depending on how she views Kotal Kahn's reign.

14. Seidan Resistance

• Members: Darrius and Dairou (?)
• Goals: Overthrowing the Seidan Senate and replace with an allegedly more democratic regime.

15. Seidan Guard

• Members: Hotaru
• Goals: Serving the national interests of Seido against foreign realms (namely Outworld and Chaosrealm) and possibly may join Dark Raiden depending on what the spoiler protected individual offers in exchange for Seido's allegiance or at the very least ensure that Onaga, if he returns, he will beat the Dragon King to the punch.

16. Elder Gods

• Operatives: Fujin; Quan Chi (with his free will removed and turned into their new champion encased in Monster Armor (in the event that the Konquest mode only character from Deception known as Monster is reinvented as a fully playable character).
• Goals: Preventing the Kamidogu from falling into the hands of whomever the Elder gods do not trust (e.g. Havik, Onaga, Dark Raiden).

17. Tekunin

• Members: Tri-Borg
• Goals: Seek to destroy and/or forcefully cyberize all organic life.

The next game will be focused on Jade or the woman in her arcade ending.

This can be very possible considering she is already been possesed in her ending and in Kitana's MKX ending too.She states to rescue the realms, everything must be reimagined once more. This came rather out of nowhere and Jade is nowhere to be found in MKX bar Kitana's ending, this hints that Jade is not a revenant, which does work as the woman could technically be her soul. This would make sense and thus she is free from Quan Chi. The plot could revolve around Jade trying to change the timeline once more with the help of the woman before a huge war is waged between Earthrealm and the Netherrealm, essentially creating a timed Retcon siutation.

• If this WMG is to be true, there has to be an explanation of how that being that possessed Jade undid her revenant process. Last time in Jade's Arcade ending in MK9, Jade was possessed while being alive. Then in MK9's story, she was turned into a revenant. The possessing lady must have a process to undo the revenant status of Jade, kind of like how Sub-Zero went from cyber to flesh again.
• I suspect the woman is going to be used for a later series reboot after they do some more experimenting with characters and plots in this timeline (getting a chance to redo the original trilogy allowed them to salvage several characters who had previously been rejected by fans or never had a chance to really shine on their own). This time they're building it in from the start so it won't be some Deus Ex Machina at the last minute when everything goes to hell. They'll keep bringing her up in endings until they need her to keep the fans remembering it. Perhaps the woman is a friendly Elder God seeking to help without breaking the rules they all seem bound by?
• It's also possible that the woman possessing Jade may have been dismayed at the fact that several individuals (notably Raiden) had tampered with the timeline, and could work to re-imagine the timeline to what it was supposed to be.

Jade has become the new Champion of the Elder Gods.

Since Scorpion had lost his wraith form in the new timeline as opposed to returning to the Netherealm like he did in MK4 (as well as what is possibly the current timeline Scorpion calling the original timeline Scorpion 'delusional' for claiming to be the champion), he was not chosen to be the Champion of the Elder Gods. Instead, the Woman in White (a possible elder god, as there are at least 2 elder goddesses), possessed Jade in order to make her the new champion instead, and attempt to re-direct the new timeline towards what it was supposed to be. Considering Jade was a revenant for a short time, this possibly gave her the same type of qualities that Scorpion had before he became Human once again.

There really are clones of Mileena wandering around.

A Mileena mirror match begins with one Mileena claiming Shang Tsung creating many of them. This might not be just throwaway, non-can silly dialogue, but actually true. And if so, it might create a way to get Mileena back in a sequel, albeit a reintroduction of her, and possibly one who could be redeemable like in Kitana's MK9 ending.

• This would actually make sense, and solve one of my Headscratchers from the previous game (how Mileena managed to just walk off a beating from Stryker and then Raiden when Kintaro, Ermac and Reptile went down and stayed down), perhaps Mileena was designed to have her consciousness jump to a new pre-grown body whenever she dies. It would explain why Shang-Tsung seemed to have several in-progress bodies in the flesh pitts despite already having a living Mileena. It could also be a way to explain how Mileena always dies/is assumed dead in pretty much every game she appears in.
  • ...Except Mileena didn't awaken in the flesh pits. If you look at the art in her ending, the place she woke up was much too modern and high tech for something to exist in Outworld, not to mention the large green fields she and her clones were shown on are a complete opposite to Outworld's Desert/tropical jungle landscape. If anything, it seemed like she awoke in an Earthrealm lab. While this doesn't necessarily mean Shang Sung was not the one to clone her in this unfamiliar area, it would also raise the question of how he did it, and why.
  • It could be the same place where Kano revived Kabal in 9 given that it also has rather Hi-Tech appearance despite being in Outworld

Ermac now has Mileena and Baraka's souls.

In addition to housing Shao Kahn's soul, when Mileena and Baraka died, their souls were drawn into Ermac due to Kahn's binding spell he put on his minions. This helps to pave the way for the two to one day return in some fashion.

Kano's son will be a playable character in the next game.

He already showed up in Kano's ladder ending, getting harsh lessons in H2H, weapons, and other neat stuff. Plus, think of all the interesting dynamics you could explore when you've got a colorful character like Kano involved in the parenting process.

• Maybe his son might even turn out good, opposing his father.

MK11 Story

Taking Raiden's and Kotal Kahn's endings as base, the story will feature a Mortal Kombat tournament with Earthrealm as the invader and Outworld as the defending side. Raiden will be the final boss in Arcade mode.Alternatively, halfway through the story Netherrealm invades (again) and Liu Kang hijacks the Big Bad role. In this case, Liu will be the Arcade boss with Kitana as sub-boss.

The Mediterranean cult Johnny and Cass descend from bred warriors specifically to battle Shinnok and other would-be traitorous Elder Gods.

Thus why the Cage clan's green mystery glow makes Shinnok's magic a No-Sell; the bloodline may have been specifically granted a negation aura to battle Elder Gods on equal footing, should one turn rogue.

• Confirmed in Chapter 20 of the MKX comics.

Mileena will return in the next game or two.

Mileena dies or is presumed dead in nearly every game she appears in and is an extremely popular character and was not given a new character to replace her for the next generation. hell, given who is in charge of the Netherealm by the end of the game Mileena's death may be setting up some interesting plot points.

Frost will be revealed as Bi Han's bastard daughter and Kuai Lang's niece.

Frost said in her fight with Cassie that she's an orphan. She has ice powers like the Sub-Zeros, but how she has them hasn't really been looked at in detail.

Now, imagine that Bi Han impregnated a woman before his death. She gives birth to Frost. One thing leads to another, and Frost ends up as an orphan. Frost is a professional fighter in her late 10s to early 20s. Kuai Lang finds out about his relationship to Frost, and wanting both to train another Cryomancer descendant and keep his surviving family close, takes Frost on as a pupil. Frost might know who her birth father is.

• Maybe Sareena's the mother? She's a demon, so she probably ages differently than humans.

There will be several DLC packs

A new trend for game companies is to continually release new DLC over time to maintain interest in a game. Not to mention DLC for Injustice was popular. The packs will be as stated:

• Pack 2 (The Kounter Pack) consisting of the cameo fighters you fight against in story mode will have the following:
  • Sindel
  • Rain
  • Baraka
  • Smoke (you don't actually get to fight him but his higher number of appearances and tendency to appear with Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Kitana, and Sindel would be a good implication that there are plans for him.)
• Pack 3 (The Kameo Pack) will consist of previous fighters that make cameos but aren't fought against in Story mode and will include:
  • Li Mei
  • Sareena
  • Frost
  • Fujin
• Pack 4 (The Outkast Pack) will have fighters that don't appear at all in the game proper and consist of:
  • Jade
  • Skarlet
  • Kira (her appearance as a prisoner in Shao Kahn's arena stands out too much to just be coincidence)
  • Cyrax (none of the cyborg characters appear in game and his name is brought up in Kustom Kombat)
• Pack 5 (The Komeback Pack) will feature the revenants that also appear in game that aren't fought against and will consist of:
  • Stryker
  • Kabal
  • Nightwolf
  • Noob Saibot (not one of the revenants but he was back form the dead to serve under Quan Chi and Scorpion was saved from the fate that Noob suffered so it could be possible)
• Pack 6 (The Konquest Pack) will consist of villains who didn't appear in the game and will be as follows:
  • Havik (Ensemble Dark Horse and prominent role in the digital comic)
  • Reiko (did at one time have a costume that was one of the Palette Swap ninjas that the fandom loves)
  • Shang Tsung
  • Motaro (a centaur character would be different gameplay to have)
• Pack 7 (The Kome to Town Pack) will consist solely of the following Guest Fighters:
  • Pinhead
  • Nemesis
  • T-800
  • Spawn
    • Or maybe, a Seth MacFarlane themed pack, featuring Deadpool, imagine the Freaking FCC song as the Stage theme.
  • Peter, Brian and Stewie
  • Cleveland and Cleveland Jr.
  • Stan Smith
  • And lastly, Cable and Deadpool.

Alternatively: more DLC characters will be made for MKX depending on how much DLC is sold. We might not get all of these characters, but depending on how profitable the current DLC is, we might get a few. Injustice had six DLC characters, so a bit more or less than that is a plausible estimate for the DLC character total for this game.

Rainbow Dash will be a playable DLC Guest Fighter.

As we all know, Ed Boon has a tendency to include kombatants based upon rumors and legends surrounding his games. Among the latest is the inclusion of Rainbow Dash as DLC, thanks to this video.

At least one of the fighters will call Predator "one ugly motherfucker" in pre-match dialogue

Because of course they should.

• Confirmed in at least one way so far as of the latest update that has Predator as a AI only combatant Using Erron Black's X-ray move on Predator shows the bullet has "Ugly Mofo" on it.
  • Also confirmed with Bo Rai Cho saying the "You are one UGLY motherfucker!" line verbatim.

The next Kombat Pack will feature characters who are Foils to the first Kombat Pack

Details listed below:

• Freddy Kreuger: Since he was featured in the last game, updating him for MKX wouldn't be much of a stretch. Plus, who WOULDN'T want a Freddy vs. Jason match?
  • This seems unlikely since Boon said he did not want to redo DLC.
• Rain: Like Tanya, he's an Edenian who's Fighting for a Homeland in the MKX story, and also prone to Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. He's also been featured as DLC in the last game, and also featured as an enemy in the game - updating him shouldn't be much of a stretch.
• Sareena: Like Tremor, she was a Breakout Character from one of the Spin-Off games in the series (Mortal Kombat: Special Forces for Tremor, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for Sareena), and a big Ensemble Dark Horse for the fans.
• Cyrax: Since a LOT of fans were mad that the scrapping of the Cyber Lin-Kuei meant there wouldn't be an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny between them and the Preator, bringing in Cyrax (who isn't otherwise mentioned in the MKX story) would be the best way for them to Win Back the Crowd.
  • Kind of confirmed. New fighter Triborg has three variations, one is Cyrax, one is Sektor, and the last one is Cyber Smoke. A hidden variation includes Cyber Sub-Zero
• Alternately, an Alien to match the Predator, for obvious reasons. If you check Ed's Twitter, he has been tweeting a lot about the movies lately...
  • Confirmed, a Tarkatan-born Xenomorph is a Guest Fighter.

Raiden, Kotal Kahn, and Liu Kang will be forced to set aside their differences in the future

Assuming Ermac's ending will be followed up on, Shang Tsung is back and stronger than ever. With Ermac 's souls added to his own, he could very easily take control of Outworld or Netherrealm or even both, and use the souls of the living in that realm to attack Earthrealm. The only way to prevent this would be the leaders of these realms to end their conflict and band together against him.

Netherealm Studios is building up to a Horror/Sci-fi Icon fighting game

First Freddy now Jason and the Predator? Seems like some of their DLC might testing the water to see if such an idea could work...

The Seidan military will be enlisted to serve MK11's Big Bad Dark Raiden

Given that they share similarly strict views of justice and mutual animosity towards Outworld for its attacks upon their realms in the past (even in spite of Kotal Kahn's efforts to mend relations with the other realms), it would be very logical for such an alliance to be made ^note  (and also if he fears that the events of the original timeline that he can recall from his premonitions are starting to repeat, he will at the very least try to prevent the Seidans from seeking to make a deal with Onaga.) in order to carry out pre-emptive campaigns (possibly genocidal) against Outworld and all other realm aside from their own. Cassie's team and her allies are not going to allow this to happen upon uncovering this big conspiracy for being Disproportionate Retribution and work with Kotal's forces to stop it.

Possible future Guest Fighters for either this game (as DLC) or future games...

• Spawn
• Raiden
• The Xenomorph Queen
• Rick Taylor
• Ash Williams
• Batman
• The Toxic Avenger
• Freddy Fazbear
• Red Shadow
• Ryu Hayabusa
• Yaiba
• Heavy Weapons Guy
• Alex Mercer
• Kagero
• Duke Nukem
• Alucard
• Demitri Maximoff
• Rikiya Busujima
• Ryuko Matoi (Or possibly Satsuki Kiryuin or Ragyo Kiryuin)
• Jacket
• Micheal Myers
• Venom
• Nobody suggested The Bride yet? Really?

Raiden will turn against the Elder Gods.

Now that he's corrupted, its a question of time until he see them as "toothless worms" and begin to disobey them so he can "better protect" Earthrealm. Made more explicit in Quan Chi's ending, who is revived by the Elder Gods. They have begun to view Raiden as the new threat.

Raiden wasn't exactly corrupted by Shinnok, he just had one bad day.

Leading up to that horribly shitty day, he'd had to kill Liu Kang, someone with whom his relationship was closer to that of Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle than anything else, and seen many other good people get killed and turned into revenants under the direct control of the Big Bad, and then found out that someone had managed to steal the MacGuffin that kept the bastard from coming back. Then...

• He got ambushed, injured, and immobilized by the aforementioned Big Bad.
• He was forced to watch helplessly while one of his friends was tortured, and then the spirit of the entire planet was poisoned.
• He managed to cleanse the Jinsei, which very much did not look like a pleasant process, and almost died from it.
• THEN he found out that the only thing he knew could bring back all of the people he'd lost to being revenants was no longer possible because some jackass had murdered the hell out of the person responsible, whose magic was necessary to reverse the process. An event, which, by the way, CAUSED the Big Bad's return, and therefore the REST of the Trauma Conga Line.

With that in mind, it's entirely possible that he turned into Dark Raiden all on his own as a response to all the shit he'd just been through.

• If that is the case why would he instead prevent said jackass to commit seppuku and then made him one of Earthrealm's enforcer/protector?
  • Forcing the guy who inadvertently caused most of that mess to serve him in Earthrealm's defense is equal parts punishment, pragmatic use of an extremely skilled warrior, and an opportunity for that warrior to earn redemption. In fact, I'd say it's more likely Raiden would do that if he turned dark on his own than if he were corrupted by an outside force.

Sub-Zero watches Police Procedurals and Detective dramas in his down time

Jacqui wasn't wrong in surmising that his "thin blue line" speech was lifted from somewhere. I see him as classics guy, so my guess is his favorites are Kojak and Colombo.

Quan Chi planned everything, including his "death".

Come on, Does anyone think he'd really allow himself to be Killed Off for Real?

Following Raiden and Kotal Kahn's Ladder endings, Raiden will have a character perform as his champion like Goro to Shang Tsung or Kintaro to Shao Kahn

In keeping with how his and Kotal's endings have Earthrealm turn the tables on Outworld by invading it with Kotal countering by getting the Elder Gods to set up a tournament, Raiden will a select a strong Earthrealmer or Earthrealm friendly character to serve as his champion.

• Scorpion would most likely be that champion. In his Ladder ending, he and the Shirai Ryu were imbued with power from the Jinsei, making them immortal. Raiden's Ladder ending has him leading the Shirai Ryu in an invasion of Outworld.

With the announcement of a second wave of DLC, Nitara will be one of the characters included in it

She's the only noteworthy character from the PS2 era that didn't make a physical appearance, despite being part of the franchise's Audience-Alienating Era, she still has her fans...I'm certain they've been saving her for this.

• Josssed.

Baraka is the permanent host body of the Xenomorph.

The reason being because of the way it was revealed in the Kombat Pack 2 trailer, with a chest-burster coming out of Baraka, and given how the Xenomorph has a similar build, complete with Tarkatan blades...

The Jason Voorhees in the game is not the "real" Jason

He's a copycat, similar to Friday the 13th Part [[spoiler:V. This would explain why he's so un-Jason-like; fighting like less of a lumbering zombie and more like someone who's not undead, being willing to remove his mask (and why his head appears to be less deformed than we're used to), and also following the rules of the Mortal Kombat tournament (rounds, time limit, etc).

Tri-Borg's origin

Tri-Borg is Sektor from Armageddon timeline, merged with that timeline's Cyrax and Smoke by Blaze's power.

• Jossed: Triborg is the shared consciousness of the present timeline's Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke, inhabiting a body built from Cyber Sub-Zero's corpse.

Guest characters in the next sequel will have roles in the story mode

If Raiden is attempting to invade Outworld, he might trick Jason and Leatherface among possible others (a return of Freddy Kreuger or Kratos?) into fighting for Earthrealm if the Special Forces and Lin Kuei are unwilling. If the previous Guest Fighters are reused, many would react to Raiden with a What the Hell, Hero? look since he would be unleashing a bunch of Omincidal Maniacs which include a child murderer, a cannibal, a guy who literally brought about the apocalypse in his own world, and a mindless zombie killing machine, onto Outworld.

Sub-Zero and Scorpion's newfound alliance will be broken in the next game.

The two will come to blows once more due to Raiden's oppressive reign, with Scorpion and the Shirai-Ryu siding with Raiden, while Sub-Zero and the Lin Kuei rebel against them.

Jason will be a non-DLC character in the next MK game.

This would probably lead to much controversy in the fandom thanks to the continued presence of guest characters in Mortal Kombat, but it would also open up an opportunity for fans to reenact that other famous movie rivalry with a returning DLC character while sticking to Boon's preference for no repeating DLC.

The creature being formed in the background of Quan Chi's arena is...

Shao Kahn. Or rather, a clone of him. Though we never see the creature being completed, it has a similar heavy presence to the big guy, and it is odd that Quan Chi would have Kahn's hammer and armour perfectly preserved in that same room. So if things went south for Shinnok, as they did, it wouldn't be impossible for the bald necromancer to have a contingency leader in storage just in case.

Dark Raiden considers Kotal Kahn a possible threat to Earth, hence why Earthrealm invades Outworld.

Really, this goes without saying but it's very likely that Raiden found out about Kotal imprisoning some of his Earth warriors and then learned about the Emperor's intent to swear loyalty to Shinnok if only to buy Outworld some time. So when he went Dark Raiden, the thunder god decided that Kotal would be the first to go (partly believing Kotal could probably attack Earth at any time, partly out of spite for Kotal's betrayal and partly due to Kotal rendering the Accords as pointless as the old tournament itself,) hence the endings where Raiden and the Shirai Ryu invade Outworld, Kotal invokes Mortal Kombat in a last-ditch attempt to stop Raiden's invasion and Bo Rai Cho lends a hand to support Kotal Kahn (assuming he survived Shinnok's attack and got wind of Raiden's attempted invasion of Outworld.)

Raiden may be under the One Being's influence.

Considering how the One Being is hinted to have influenced powerful beings such as Shao Kahn, Shinnok and Onaga in the past and how it plans to reunite the realms to make itself whole again, it is very likely that Raiden may now be under the One Being's influence (after Raiden absorbed the Jinsei's corruption into himself).

The Jinsei is considered to be Earthrealm's life force, and when Raiden absorbed Shinnok's evil, it is very likely that the One Being chose Raiden as its new host. The One Being wants to merge the realms to become whole, and could manipulate Raiden under the pretense of making Earthrealm "safe".

The Big Bad of the next Mortal Kombat game will be Raiden

.With most of the primary antagonists dead or incapacitated, it's highly likely that Raiden would become the Big Bad of the next Mortal Kombat game, albeit of the Anti-Villain, He Who Fights Monsters, Knight Templar, and Well-Intentioned Extremist varieties, and if Kotal Kahn's and Raiden's endings are canon. Having been corrupted while purifying the Jinsei at the end of Mortal Kombat X, it was a given that he'd end up pulling a Face–Heel Turn. He did pull off a Heroic Sacrifice, but it proved to be senseless as the dark energy he absorbed slowly poisoned his mind and heart over time. Realizing that his sacrifice went for naught, Raiden began to feel betrayed by the Elder Gods he once revered so much, as he remembered that they didn't do much to stop Shao Kahn and Shinnok from invading Earthrealm. After he Came Back Wrong, Raiden changes tactics and invades Outworld, soliciting the help of the Shirai Ryu in this, forcing Kotal Kahn to invoke Mortal Kombat to stop the thunder god's assault on his realm. It's possible that Raiden will ally with Orderrealm, Kano and the Black Dragon, Daegon and the Red Dragon and Liu Kang among others, while others such as Fujin, Sub-Zero and Team S-F would begin to see the thunder god as a Broken Pedestal, and would work with Kotal Kahn to stop Raiden. The One Being would then be the Greater-Scope Villain, pulling the strings from behind the scenes while Raiden himself wages a Rage Against the Heavens, seeking to merge the realms so he could better "protect" Earthrealm and disobeying the jerkass Elder Gods he once revered.

Injustice: Gods Among Us will foreshadow some developments in Mortal Kombat 11

2008's MKvsDCU previewed Shao Kahn's return as the main antagonist as well as the fracturing of the relationship between Raiden and Liu Kang in 2011's Mortal Kombat 9 (albeit in the case of first he was merely part of the Big Bad Dark Kahn). The Stinger for Mortal Kombat X also showed the return of Dark Raiden. In the case of Mortal Kombat 11, Insurgent Batman and Regime Superman are replaced with Fujin and Raoh-style Corrupted Dark Raiden.

Mileena is a capable military commander but a terrible peacetime administrator

The contradiction of Mileena supposedly having been an awful Empress but leading a decent rebellion is due to the fact that Shao Kahn drilled Mileena's head with everything related to war, but not foreseeing his untimely demise, (and probably also because of his complete obsession with conquering Earthrealm) never thought of teaching his "daughter" about how to govern Outworld during times of peace. Therefore, when Outworld found itself not at war, Mileena, who we should also considerer would've had the mind of a rebellious teen at most, had no idea what to do, nearly driving Outworld to ruin and allowing Kotal, who would've had far better experience at governing Outworld since he acted as Shao Kahn's regent while the ladder was off conquering, to usurp her with little opposition.

Mortal Kombat 11 will incorporate elements of Injustice: Gods Among Us

Dark Raiden will play the role of Regime Superman, while Hotaru and Seido will be the Mortal Kombat equivalents of Sinestro and Korugar, allying themselves with Dark Raiden due to, as mentioned above, their shared draconian views on justice. There will be an Earthrealm insurgency, likely led by Sub-Zero or Fujin as MK Insurgent Batman. Shang Tsung will return as a combination of Lex Luthor and Ares, secretly aiding Earthrealm's insurgency simply because Dark Raiden will be a major problem in the long run. It's also possible that Liu Kang, Kitana and the Netherrealm could side with Dark Raiden in a manner similar to Yellow Lantern and Wonder Woman serving as Co-Dragons to Dark Raiden. Taking his Arcade ending into account, Scorpion will almost certainly play a role similar to Aquaman, pledging his and the Shirai Ryu's allegence to Dark Raiden much like Aquaman did to Superman.

If the One Being is revived, Shao Khan's Kids (Ermac, Skarlet, and possibly Mileena) would survive

Because They were artificially created instead of born, the whole "part of The One Being" thing doesn't apply to them. Also, Ermac and Skarlet are a collection of souls concentrated into one body meaning that it would be difficult to integrate them into the One Being's essence. Ermac's arcade ending in Deception implied that he at the very least can sense the One Being's influence, bringing up interesting implications. This could be used as a Plot Coupon in case Ed Boon decides to allow the One Being to be released, as it would as allow for an After the End scenario where Khan's Kids, possibly with Raiden or Fujin's help, would have to put the One Being back in it's dormant state

Raiden will convince several individuals into serving him.

Now that he's gone heel at the end of Mortal Kombat X and could go against the Elder Gods, he could convince the following individuals into serving him:

• Kano: Since Kano had a role in stealing Shinnok's amulet and giving it to Mileena during the Outworld civil war, Raiden won't let him off the hook so easily. The Thunder God could convince him to join by his side and destroy Outworld, or face the consequences, either by outright killing him or kidnapping his son.
• D'Vorah: It's not like he'd just let her pack up and go after the Story Mode's conclusion. This also gives the Thunder God good use for Shinnok's decapitated corpse... as a host for an army of super drones a la D'vorah's Ladder ending.
• Scorpion: He unwittingly doomed the remaining revenants to stay as revenants forever, thanks to his Revenge Before Reason. Raiden could convince him into becoming his champion in Scorpion's Arcade ending. Raiden and the Shirai Ryu invade Outworld (in Raiden's Arcade ending), but Kotal Kahn invokes Mortal Kombat, forcing the thunder god to withdraw and come up with a Plan B to destroy Outworld.
• Mileena: In her Arcade ending, Mileena awakens in a lab and finds herself surrounded by clones of herself, all of whom shared a psychic bond with one another. Raiden notes this, offers her to exact her own revenge on those who wronged her in the past, and allows her to use the clone army to wreck havoc on Outworld.
• Erron Black: Raiden could offer him to sell out Outworld in exchange for more money.
  • Erron is fiercely loyal to Kotal Kahn. Don't see him turning for any reason short of Kotal screwing him over.
    • Erron himself states many times that he's not loyal to anyone and would happily serve whomever pays the most. He'd turn on Kotal just as easily as he did Mileena.
• Rain & Tanya: They may work with Raiden in exchange for a free Edenia by inciting a 2nd civil war within Outworld, so Kotal Kahn will be bogged down in dealing with multiple problems (a Mortal Kombat tournament stemming from Raiden's invasion, combined with a new insurrection), as a way for Raiden to weaken Outworld in the long term.
• Triborg: Since Tri-borg has Sektor's bad habits in essence, Raiden could encourage the cyborg to create an army of super-soldiers to launch genocidal campaigns against Outworld.
• Hotaru: Since both of them share extremist views on justice and how Outworld has attacked their realms in the past (despite Kotal Kahn's efforts to mend relations with Earthrealm), it would be logical for Raiden to form a Deadly Alliance with the Seidan military general.
• Liu Kang & Kitana: Despite their mutual differences in the past, Raiden could convince (and secretly manipulate) the Netherrealm's new rulers into becoming his Co-Dragons alongside Scorpion and Kano, since it's very likely that Raiden, being a Knight Templar with borderline Omnicidal Maniac tendencies, could destroy the Netherrealm if they turn down his offer.

Shinnok may be under the One Being's influence.

In his own arcade ending, it's shown that Shinnok gets his revenge against his fellow Elder Gods by proceeding to merge all of the realms and its inhabitants into the One Being, which then results in the end of all reality. Being one of the Elder Gods who fought against Mortal Kombat's Greater-Scope Villain, it's very likely that Shinnok was subtly tempted by the One Being into merging the realms, just like how it did with Shao Kahn and Onaga.

Johnny's special ancestry gives him inherent knowledge about creatures of evil, but he doesn't realize it consciously

So he simply writes them off as film special effects or a vague sense of deja vu to countless films he's done. This is hinted at in IX; any normal person would see a Tarkatan and have a brief freak-out. Cage doesn't believe Baraka's for real but still instinctually reacts accordingly when physically challenged. He also doesn't seem to grasp the full significance of his ability to hurl balls of green energy. MKX seems to confirm that he still isn't fully over this; he seems to understand the xenomorph as a film character when it is quite evidently real. In other words, Johnny Cage is duped by his own Weirdness Censor.

The end result of Johnny and Sonya's relationship is due to Writer Revolt.

The writers were so sick of fans repeatedly shipping the two of them together and wondering out loud when they were going to become an Official Couple that they did end up finally getting married and having a daughter...only for them to then get a divorce all in the off-screen interim of 25 years just to shut the fandom up. And because True Love Is Boring.

Kano's son will be Foil to Cassie in next game.

Just think about it. Cassie was raised in trainings and discipline, but she still received a healthy dose of parental affection from both Sonya and Johnny, and we see through many instances in game and comic how much they care about her. Kano's and his son's relationship on the other had...hoo boy, arcade ending showed it all. It's quiet possible that after such overly tough treatment, his son will become unstable violent "Well Done, Son" Guy who will walk on the heads just to get the recognition from his father, contrasting Cassie, who's confident in her skill and accepted by her parents, even if she don't succeed every time. There will be encounters as Cassie will always interfere with his plans, ruining his chance to make papa proud. Kano's son will probably hate her guts, but Cassie will not take it seriously, and will see him more like a nuisance.]]

Dark Raiden will force the heroes past the Godzilla Threshold.

His actions will force the heroes to unleash either Shinnok, Shao Kahn or Onaga to stop him.