I know this was probably posted, or you already know about it, but I will still post it because it gives me a lot of hope!
https://sourcegaming.info/2018/08/2...smash-direct-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-561/
"Chrom from the
Fire Emblem series and Dark Samus from the
Metroid series are also joining the fray.
I received many requests for both fighters from people in Japan and overseas, respectively."
"
I referred to the Smash Ballot when selecting characters this time, and King K. Rool from the
Donkey Kong series was one who
received a ton of votes."
The Smash Ballot is huge for this game and I'm sure Bandana Dee did well enough, at least better than both Chrom and Dark Samus, two characters that were "disconfirmed" in Smash 4 (Robin's Final Smash and an AT). I think that because a lot of people didn't vote for characters that had no chances for Smash 4 because they didn't know or believe the ballot would be used for future games.
It also looks like Sakurai organizes the amount of requests in countries/continents.
Chrom was popular in Japan and Dark Samus was popular in the other places.
We also know Shovel Knight is an AT, and it's obvious he was added thanks to the ballot support he got from America.
Bandana Dee was decently popular here and very popular in Japan, sure, he would not be an easy to develop Echo Fighter like Chrom or Dark Samus, but still, he was popular during the ballot period and that raises his chances a lot in my opinion.
During the ballot period, the characters I personally saw a lot (in polls, forums, Top 10 videos, etc) were:
-Like a million third parties:
Shovel Knight, Shantae, Banjo, Geno,
Bomberman,
Bayonetta, Rayman, Sora, Crash, Spyro, Slime, etc... and I don't think we will see many of them playable, probably 2 or 3 max, third parties are hard to get.
-Veterans:
(we already have all of them!)
-Nintendo characters:
King K. Rool, Isaac,
Bandana Dee, Dixie Kong,
Inkling,
Krystal and
Daisy.
We already know he doesn't appear in Dedede's moveset, not even in the Masked Dedede Final Smash.
He is
probably not an AT, thanks to Chef Kawasaki.
So, I don't know, the only thing he could be IMO (if not playable) is part of Dedede's Victory Pose instead of the other Waddle Dee or just a trophy (would be very weird)... or nothing again (just no).
But yeah, in summary, Bandana Dee is still not disconfirmed, the ballot is very important for character selection this time and I'm sure Bandana Dee did well in it, so... I have hope!