I know this will now be blasphemy in die eyes of die-hard Mortal Kombat fans, but still:
If there was no way around Cole due to them wanting him to be the audience, I wish they had just made him Scorpion. Have the opening scene with Hanzo and Bi-Han, where Hanzo dies. And then centuries later you have Hanzos grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grandson Cole in the mix, trying to protect his family. His family gets killed by Sub-Zero, Cole gets all angry and unleashes his secret power, which transforms him into Scorpion, as he screams out "GET OVER HERE" and pulls Sub-Zero in for the final fight.