Ash Williams may have been replaced by Joker for Mortal Kombat 11's DLC lineup based on a lot of circumstantial evidence
The subject of "Ash Williams" has been closely tied with Mortal Kombat 11 over the course of about two years now. Despite this, Ash Williams from Evil Dead and Army of Darkness is not among the 12 characters that have joined so far as DLC — 13 characters if you also count Shao Kahn.
For quite some time now, it's been speculated that D.C.'s Joker (Batman's most iconic villain) effectively replaced Ash Williams as a DLC fighter. While there doesn't appear to be any definitive evidence that confirms this theory outright, there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that supports it.
It was recently discovered that Kronika, Mortal Kombat 11's final boss, has secret dialogue that comes up if she defeats the player's character using an attack that summons a Tyrannosaurus rex to trample the opponent. What Kronika says is dependent on which character is being used.
Every fighter receives a unique line of dialogue, but there are four exceptions. Kronika doesn't appear to have voiced lines in the situations where she defeats Mileena, Rain, Rambo and... the Joker.
To some extent, it makes sense that there's nothing in place for Mileena, Rain and Rambo, but Joker's situation seems particularly strange. This seems to imply that all other characters so far were initially planned for when Kronika's voice actress recorded lines for Mortal Kombat 11. Since Kronika had an important role in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath's DLC story, she must've returned and provided recordings for dialogue against Fujin, Sheeva and RoboCop.
Going back to the era of the first Kombat Pack for Mortal Kombat 11, we're sure we heard a chainsaw sound effect during the trailer that should've been a hint for who we now know to either be the Terminator or the Joker. However, neither of these two characters use a chainsaw in their movesets.
Later, an in-game message appeared that noted how Ash Williams was scheduled to join via the Kombat Pack. Strangely, Joker's name was missing, though he was the character present in the image.
The situation kept getting stranger as an official email directed to outlets like IGN also outright named "ASH" from "ARMY OF DARKNESS" as a playable character in Mortal Kombat 11.
Richard Epcar, the voice actor for Raiden and Joker, at one point commented about Bruce Campbell's involvement in Mortal Kombat 11. Bruce Campbell himself, however, claims to not know anything about Ash Williams being in Mortal Kombat 11.
Before the reveal of the Kombat Pack 1 characters, it was reported that leaked voice clips found in the game revealed the identities of several characters that were planned for DLC. Ash Williams was, of course, among those that supposedly leaked from this.
When pressed for information, Ed Boon curiously stated that he wished he could talk about Ash Williams and Mortal Kombat. He noted this as having potential for a future conversation.
Ash Williams not being in Mortal Kombat 11 is particularly strange considering all the "evidence" that supports his inclusion. At this point, Ed Boon has already stated that Rambo is intended to finish the goal of getting as many '80s action stars into Mortal Kombat 11 as possible.
As a result, the idea that Joker replaced Ash Williams is certainly a plausible one. Perhaps we'll be able to understand exactly what happened with regards to Ash Williams at a future date.
