The Mortal Kombat 1 trailers shown off at a San Diego Comic-Con gave us a very good idea of what direction the main story will take, and there are a lot of lore changes this time around. Kitana and Mileena are biological sisters, Li Mei and Tanya are part of a new faction dedicated to protecting them, and the Tarkatan are normal dudes afflicted with some kind of illness. However, some things never change - and one of those things is King Jerrod kicking the bucket.
A throwaway line in one of the trailers confirms that, yet again, Jerrod is dead before the game even starts. This is an integral part of Li Mei's backstory, as she was responsible for protecting him at the time he was killed. This is almost definitely referring to Jerrod, who in all timelines, is the former ruler of Edenia before being assassinated.
"Li Mei used to lead the Umgadi," says Liu Kang, narrating the recent character reveal trailer. "It was on her watch that the princess' father was murdered."
The story then sees Li Mei return to Edenia, having to deal with the consequences of failing to protect the king,
Jerrod isn't mentioned by name, but he's almost definitely the father they are referring to. For starters, Jerrod has always been Kitana's biological father and the previous king of Edenia prior to Shao Kahn's invasion. Shao posed as Kitana's father for some time, but she eventually discovered the truth and turned against him. We also know that Shao is a general rebelling against the royal family in this timeline, so it's clearly not him being referred to.
Also, being assassinated off-screen before the story even begins is just incredibly on-brand for Jerrod, let's be honest. That, and Mileena has never really had a biological father before, so there's no other candidate here outside of a new character altogether.
With all that being said, Jerrod could technically find a way to make an appearance - alive, this time. We already know that Ermac is in the first DLC pack, and in the last timeline, it was confirmed that one of the many souls that make up the fighter is Jerrod's. This means there is an easy enough way to write him back to life, if he can catch a lucky break for once.
If not, then the Edenian storyline is likely to stay focussed on Mileena's attempt to maintain the throne despite her illness. Once again, she has Tanya on her side, so that will help. Although she's another character who rarely wins, so we'll have to see how she fares in the main campaign.