Ed Boon, creator of the Mortal Kombat series, decided to actually follow through on a tease and released a trailer revealing Kitana as a playable character in Mortal Kombat X. But it had much farther-reaching implications than anyone could have anticipated.
First off, this is the second character reveal in a row of a fighter who was in the previous Mortal Kombat installment. The puzzling part of that is that most of those characters are dead or imprisoned by Quan Chi. In fact, Kung Lao and Kitana are both dead.
Also See: Kitana Announced for Mortal Kombat X in Brand New Bone-Crunching Trailer
Bringing characters back from the dead is nothing new for Mortal Kombat, but this is the first installment in the series that has actually claimed to follow from the events of the last. Mortal Kombat 9 raised the bar with one canon story, as opposed to a variety of options presented by winning the arcade with different characters.
The creators of Mortal Kombat have already confirmed multiple times that Mortal Kombat (2011) is canon for Mortal Kombat X. But, as the trailer asserts, Kung Lao and Kitana have somehow escaped Quan Chi’s grasp. What this means for Mortal Kombat X is open season: any character who died or became a revenant of Quan Chi is once again a possible addition to the Mortal Kombat X roster.
This includes long-time favorite Liu Kang, who has only missed out on one canon Mortal Kombat game, after being killed in the opening scene of Deadly Alliance. Liu Kang met a fiery end in Mortal Kombat 9 too, after letting his emotions get the best of him and confronting Raiden (who subsequently fried the whiny bastard). While it’s possible that Liu Kang could be left in the dirt for Mortal Kombat X, Kung Lao’s and Kitana’s announcement means all bets are off, and it’s looking much better for the series’ main protagonist.
This also opens the door for recent additions like Cyber Sub-Zero to come back, or old-timers like Nightwolf and Stryker or Smoke, but I imagine Liu Kang would be the favorite. He’s not necessarily the sexy choice for next announcement, and he certainly isn’t the type of new character Ed Boon has filled the roster with thus far, but Liu Kang now has a window into Mortal Kombat X. Don’t be surprised if he does a flying kick through it.
Mortal Kombat X will release on April 15th, and chances are we won’t learn more about what surprises Boon has in-store until then.
