While he's not part of the original crew, Jax is one of the key members of Earthrealm's Special Forces defensive setup against the likes of Outworld. However, by the time Mortal Kombat 11 came around, he retired and suffered the effects of PTSD. Considering that the man got his arms ripped out in several timelines and adaptations, he deserves his rest. Unfortunately for him, Mortal Kombat 1 was announced.
As pointed out by NateDawgDoge on the Mortal Kombat Subreddit, whenever there's a new Mortal Kombat timeline or movie adaptation, poor old Jax will have his arms ripped, chopped, or frozen and smashed off before he comes back stronger with his robot-arms. That last one was the latest version of this, thanks to Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat live action movie.
Now, with a whole new timeline reboot, thanks to Fire God Liu Kang, fans have been wondering just who will take away Jax's arms this time. The answers were as you'd expect them to be. A number of replies featured Kintaro and Motaro, in hopes that the characters would return. Another featured Mileena eating his hands in front of him. That wouldn't bode well for her relationship with Kitana.
Surprisingly, a lot of fans don't want Jax to suffer before he gets his power-up, but hope he enhances his arms on his own, like in his debut appearance. "I like the idea of Jax getting his ass just beat, and he realizes he needs more of an edge against these supernatural forces and does the enhancements himself," said one of the many comments in a similar vein.
However, the most horrific answer of the lot came from RedactedNoneNone. "Kano and Jax should be merged together in the new timeline," they said. "Sonya Blade is still an agent chasing down the world's most dangerous criminal -- until she realizes her own partner was the kingpin all along. She blows up Jax but he comes back with cybernetic limbs and a robot eye. No one can stop Jaxo/Kanax."
Despite how terrifying this answer is, it weirdly fits right into Mortal Kombat's campy universe. It would be a great shakeup for two characters who have been stretched a bit thin, since they're classic era kombatants who've had little to no evolution. Unless you count being replaced by your daughter.
Quite a few theories have popped up thanks to the reveal trailer. One of them involves Mileena being the empress of Outworld in this new timeline. A fan pointed out that there are quite a few elements from the shots with Kitana and Mileena in the trailer that suggest the latter is the monarch, rather than how it was left off in Mortal Kombat 11. It also fits into the theme of the trailer – different choices in the past leading to different outcomes in the present.