Earlier this week, leakers revealed 19 of the 24 characters allegedly making up Mortal Kombat 1's roster. Surprisingly, there are a few obscure 3D-era fighters, such as Havik, Reiko, Nitara, Li Mei, and Ashrah, but Ed Boon has confirmed that NetherRealm is pulling from the 3D era, lending credence to these leaker's claims.
"We have characters who represent the arcade era, and then there's the Deadly Alliance, Deception, Armageddon era," Boon said in an interview with . "Then there's the 9, X, 11 era. There's definitely some [...] surprise appearances by some of the characters from the 3D era".
Havik, Nitara, Lin Mei, and Ashrah debuted in Deception, while Reiko debuted in Mortal Kombat 4, just before the 3D era started. We also have Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Raiden, Kitana, Mileena, and Johnny Cage to name a few, all from the arcade era. And then there are leaks pointing to characters like Geras, who first appeared in MK11. It all lines up with Boon's claims of having a spread of characters from across the entire history of the series.
Ed Boon recently tweeted a picture of Mortal Kombat 4's line-up with the caption, "Some making their way back into action." As I said, Reiko is an MK4 alumnus, further lending credence to this leaked roster. Boon also said that he fully expects characters to leak before their official announcements, which they have been for a couple of months now. We obviously can't say for certain if all of these characters will be present as main fighters in MK1, but given Boon's comments and claims, the stars are lining up.
The leaks and Boon's comments are all about the main roster, though. We know some other fan-favourites like Stryker are being kept for Kameos, which is a separate, secondary roster. Speaking about possible disappointment in seeing your old mains relegated to that second slot, Boon said, "I think a lot of players assume that if you see someone as a Kameo fighter, they're not in the main roster. For instance, Scorpion is in both. Sub-Zero is in both. Kung Lao is in both. We do want to have, in general, a separation [...] the most iconic characters, a lot of them are in both Kameos and the main roster."
'Most iconic' is the important part to stress there. It's unlikely obscure characters from a game 20 years old will get to take up both slots, but seeing fighters that would otherwise be left out this time around is exciting all the same. Who knows, maybe Kameos will let Sareena and Blaze pop back up.