So no Reptile as it seems... I know he was s*** on a lot... Design and storywise and people nowadays do not care about him.
But for me.he always will be the badass green ninja and first secret character ever and I find it sad that he won't be in according to the leaks
Alone for his role in the first MK movie he will be always be my number one.
Still think it was a mistake trying to make him full reptile somehow because it hurt him a lot
Honestly, as I'm fine without out him for now for a few reasons. First of all, Kollector seem like he might fill the same niche of reptilian beast man judging by some of his features. That might sound redundant, but we currently have no idea what his moveset will be like.
So in my mind, because there's already so many brutish beast characters to stand out in the roster, what Reptile needs to stand out more so is to return to his Ninja roots. The way they emphasized Baraka in this game is really great, not only is him being a brute really clear, but also the warlord/general aspect of him. Same should go with Reptile, less emphasis on him being a beast man and more emphasis on him being a ninja/spy. Pretty much like in the classic games, he's pretty much an outworld twist on what a ninja is. Which makes him stand out both from the beast characters and the ninja characters. I think that's also why some people Chameleon instead, as Chameleon is pretty similar to classic Reptile. L
They don't even have to make Reptile human, they can still give him green scaly skin. It's more so about less emphasis on being a beast man and more on being a sleek ninja. Kind of like Scorpion, his characteristics are split between being a hellfire revenant, A japanese ninja, and his classic look.. With Reptile the main imbalance in Reptile's design is the shift away from that classic ninja look. Which unlike with Ermac in MKX and Reptile in general, in modern games its conveyed really well in the other ninjas. Even Tremor who's a ripped rock man.
Secondly, assuming Shang Tsung and Mileena are in and he's not(Most likely, but in my book it's not definitive until it's seen), he's the only one out of the playable MK2 cast to not be playable. It makes him seem pretty suspectable to being DLC.
Either way, I think it's more important that characters like Baraka, Noob, Kabal, and Jade get their chance to shine over characters like Ermac and Reptile since they missed out on the last game and fans really want them. Roster seems pretty solid to me regarding classic and new characters. Only thing it's lacking is 3D era characters, but to be honest, that probably has to do with backlash that goes far back. 3D era characters have a really bad rep. But I think we'll get at least one as DLC if the last two games are to go by.