Netherrealm as primary antagonist is wrapped up at the start, just like in MKX.
Yup, looks like the first chapter is either Sonya or Cassie leading the invasion.
It seems like she makes her grand entrance in Kotal's Koliseum, summoning all the past timeline characters in one fell swoop.
It seems this way... but what's bugging me is that the two shots we have of the Koliseum pre-battle are both missing a lot of fighters. There's no sign of past-Johnny, past-Sonya, past-Scorpion, or past(?)-Frost anywhere. So I wouldn't be surprised if this is a bit of a misdirect, and the fighters have all already been summoned (and some of them split off) before that battle.
But that limitation doesn't explain some of the game's stages looking like altered history (Shang Tsung's Island and Goro's Lair), so perhaps time travel will be explored in more ways later in the story.
You know what does explain Shang's Island and Goro's Lair looking like they got the life sucked out of them?
Shang needing some fresh souls to resurrect his ancient carcass. Like what we see happening to the monks who are getting de-souled.
Subsequently, a battle understandably breaks out in the Koliseum, because she brought forth good guys as well as bad guys. (Surprisingly she doesn't have control over their motivations, and doesn't/can't poof the good guys back when they decide to side against her.)
I think she's playing Shao for an idiot. Her goal isn't some lasting empire that Shao Kahn can rule over, it's "Temporal Armageddon." What do we know about Armageddon? The more conflict, the better. I think she's totally OK with the good guys siding against her, as they obviously would.
The Erron brought in by Kronika... Erron's new leather jacket is bitching, by the way.... is probably a younger Erron who works with Kano and the Black Dragon. Explains him jobbing for Shao and not Kotal. Kotal's Erron is MIA in the trailer - possibly made short work of in a duel with his younger self?
All of Kotal's forces are missing. No Erron, no Reptile, no Ermac, no Ferra/Torr, no nobody. Very curious.
Also explains Erron attacking the SF hangar with custom goons, as well as his fight against young Sonya in the Cage fam assault on BD Klub. With two Errons probably running around, and one employed by Kotal and therefore working for the side of light, this may mean we get an Erron chapter and I'm all out of saliva.
Seems like the BD attack SF first. Then SF hit back later. I guess this because 1. past-Johnny says he just got here 1 hour prior to the hangar attack, and 2. past-Johnny is injured attacking the BD club, but not in the hangar.
The question is why all this BD action? Maybe they attack the Hangar to break Kano out, OK. But don't SF have anything better to do than to retaliate? Like, I dunno, go fight Kronika? I think there's more to it than that. The BD are up to something funky.
The most curious shot to me is Dark Raiden and the kombat brats running out of a portal in an Earthrealm desert. The lighting is different from the SFDC stage so I'm not sure it's them coming to the rescue of the Johnnys. It looks way more climactic than that, but it's weird for the climax to be in a rando desert.
I don't think that's an Earthrealm stage, I think that's part of the invasion of Netherrealm.
A few other things that intrigue me:
1. We never see Dark Raiden after the Netherrealm attack (unless you're right and the teleportation event happens elsewhere/elsewhen). What happens to him?
2. We do see OG Raiden with Cassie Cage walking through the Shaolin Monastery grounds (?). It appears that Dark Raiden goes completely AWOL and is replaced by OG Raiden even when dealing with contemporary good guys.
3. We never see where past-Johnny and past-Sonya come from, and how/why they split off from other time travelers to join SF.
4. When the hell does Hanzo fight Scorpion? They're fighting in the Netherrealm, but I don't think it can be during the initial invasion. Stab in the dark: I think Scorpion and Sub-Zero team up to go find Noob Saibot in the Netherrealm at some point, and that's when they run into OG Scorp.
