Not even a week has gone by and already the speculation train for Mortal Kombat 11 has gone off the rails. It isn’t a bad thing since many NetherRealm fans are rightfully excited for the upcoming game in April, but with how soon it will arrive, we could see character announcements arrive weekly. From your random assortment of fan favorites to the hopes of returning characters, you can bet that everyone has their roster in mind of people they want to see is next in line. The question though is how long will we need to wait before we see those characters in action? Well, we might already know half of them.

So far, we have seven confirmed characters: Scorpion, Raiden, Sub-Zero, Baraka, Sonya Blade, Skarlet, and Geras. A good line up to showcase to the world, but then we have to remind ourselves that Shao Kahn is also a pre-order special. Not sure if we would count him with the initial roster of 25, but we know that he will arrive soon to bash people with his War Hammer. As for everyone else we can consider, one could say hints got sprinkled in here and there so it’s not like the characters we will talk about here will be random… Mostly… So what characters can we likely confirm and debunk? Let’s find out.

Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer: Liu Kang, Kang Lao

So right off the bat, let’s knock off two obvious characters. At the start of the Reveal Trailer, we see Liu Kang and Kang Lao standing next to each other as Scorpion’s Spear presumably misses them. This is the younger versions of the two and not the ones that go killed back in Mortal Kombat (2011). We can also confirm this when they are fighting their evil counterparts in another video, thus showing that it is entirely possible for other Mortal Kombat characters to get into fights with themselves (or at least those who turned Revenant).

A quick “Run-By” By Kabal

So this one will be a quickie to cover since we will likely see this reveal next week. Right as the Reveal Stream was ending, we got a confirmation of the first Kombat Kast on January 30. Usually, on the show, the developers and community team members would take the time to talk about new and returning characters, showcase what they can do, and prepare us for the upcoming release. To go with this announcement, we saw someone, or something quickly dash by.

There is only one “Speedster” character in the entire cast of Mortal Kombat, and it will likely be Kabal getting his chance to shine one more. There isn’t much else to say here, but we will likely see what new tricks and goodies Kabal will have to his name coming soon.

A Behind the Scenes look (At Kitana and The Cages)

During NetherRealm’s behind the scenes look at Mortal Kombat 11, we got to see a few more characters that will likely join the playable roster. Towards the first minute, we got to watch Raiden mercilessly murder an army with Liu Kang and Kitana looking on. Again, it probably should come as a shock to see Kitana playable. Considering how we don’t know Jade’s fate yet while Milenna having her face eaten away (or that version of Milenna), we need a female Ninja. So why not go with her? That and it also helps you have Cassie Cage calling her out a few seconds later.

Speaking of which, Cassie Cage is here too, and it looks like this could be from the story mode or pre-fight dialogue against Kitana. There’s no mistaking her for Sonya too since Cassie looks to be more serious and sporting a new haircut. She could still be the same goofball that can crush nuts with her x-ray, but this short preview shows that she isn’t fooling around. It would be safe to assume that she will be the first of the MKX kiddos to return as playable.

Now there is one more character of note that fans have gone head over heels about seeing in this video. The thing though is that you have to look really hard to try and see another Cage in it. Around the 30 second mark on one monitor, you will see a screen that shows Sub-Zero about to fight Johnny Cage. While one picture had him as a background character, it is very much possible to see Mr. Cage making a return.

Up in the air characters:

For this section, let us review characters whose playable status we might call into question (at least for the moment). Not that NetherRealm debunks them out of the roster, but it could be difficult to say if they will make it or not.

We may not know how many more “Ninjas” we will get, but Rain is a front runner. There are small hints to show that this could likely happen, including a picture of him here for “Konquer.” Can’t say what the Konquer would be for, but fans believe this is a strong hint to show he will return. That and when you have SonicFox saying, “Rain will be his main in Mortal Kombat 11,” it is hard to say if he did accidentally leak a character, or if he is trying to troll the crowd like Ed Boon.

Another character of note that came up was Kano. It’s difficult to say his status in being playable due to him chilling in the background at a bar. Unlike Johnny Cage though, there is no other official pieces of evidence to show if he will be playable or not, but for all we know, someone else could man the bar if he was playable. It is best to not write him off yet but count me as iffy on his chances.

Likely not coming back or playable.

Before we wrap this up, let’s go over the characters we likely will not see make a return. As much as it would be to see Kronika, The Keeper of Time playable, it seems like she will be untouchable (or at least someone that players will not get to play as). We already have someone on the roster who can manipulate time (Geras), so having two might be overkill. It will be awesome if she is playable in some form, but it doesn’t seem like NetherRealm is hinting towards that being a possibility. Speaking of unplayable boss characters, unless something happens where Shinnok isn’t a decapitated head, he will probably sit this game out too.

There is one more concern I have with certain characters that fall under what I call “Modifiers.” You have been looking through the various “Tower of Time” gameplay videos, you likely saw a variety of towers that have certain conditions. From here, we see the faces of various characters where their “attacks” will come in and hassle you in the match. Whether if it is Cyrax’s net trapping you, or Reptile’s acid projectile that launches you, it is a concern for one other reason: Shinnok’s face is there too. Again, Shinnok is likely not going to be playable, but it isn’t off the table either, but this could be the way to have a character see some representation in the game without being playable. I hope I’m wrong, but that would be sad to see this be a means to debunk them.

One Half Down, One Half Left to Go?

Depending on who you ask, the roster count varies from one guess to another. However, if there’s one thing everyone can agree on, we know the first half of our roster.

I’d like to think we’re sitting at around 16 characters, meaning we’ve about another handful of characters to figure out. It’s hard for me to say which characters I personally would want to see back, but I probably would roll with a few fan favorites. It would be nice to see the rest of the MKX kiddos return, but if one other were to come back, it would have to go to Takeda. As for the rest of the playable MKX cast, the only other character I would like to see return would be Erron Black since he deserves something more. As for my other small guesses of older characters, Kenshi would also be nice to have and Noob Saibot needs to come back.

There are so many great characters we can pick from, but I know I likely won’t see all of them. It would be great to see them continue to build the roster from MKX, but we know that a good chunk of the roster will get cut. Hopefully, NetherRealm took the feedback of the fans to heart when they made their roster since we did get to see Skarlet make a return. We’ll likely see a good chunk of returning characters in the next month or two, but until we do, it is best to keep an eye out for those Kombat Kasts since we likely will see characters coming out of the woodwork before April drops.

Are there any characters you hope to see return? Which character will you likely roll with when Mortal Kombat 11 arrives in April? Leave your thoughts down below and be sure to follow us at Culture of Gaming for more editorials on Mortal Kombat 11, and other upcoming fighting games.