Well as someone once put it, dying in Mortal Kombat is about as big a setback as spending a few hours at the DMV to get your driver's license renewed.
Not to mention in Ed Boon's last interview at E3, he kind of implied towards the end that we haven't seen the last of a lot of the characters who died. It'll be interesting to see how their souls get taken out of Quan Chi's clutches in the next game if they do.
Shao Kahn, I'm not expecting to see make a comeback this time though since he's been punished accordingly by the Elder Gods, unlike in the old timeline, but Shang Tsung could still make a possible return (let's not forget that he was reborn in Armageddon after his and Quan Chi's bodies were blown up by Raiden's explosion in the Deception intro), and Shang did not appear among the dead warriors Quan Chi controlled in the netherrealm when Raiden confronted him, possibly implying that he's still alive elsewhere somehow. He could've just became old and weak again due to Shao Kahn taking the souls he had absorbed from him and transferred them into Sindel..
If you're right about all that though, then I guess Mileena would be the new ruler of Outworld for the time being, which is an awkward thought, with how childish she is by nature...
