Keep in mind, despite numbering the characters, I don't think the additional fighters will necessarily be in this order:
- Fighter's Pass #5 - Ryu Hayabusa: I've already been over Hayabusa and why I'll think he'll happen, so I'll keep it short. Koei Tecmo does a ton for Nintendo these days, he's a NES icon that successfully transitioned to a fairly well beloved modern day incarnation, and people have heard rumblings of him. Koei is also the only major Japanese publisher really missing at this point. So I think he rounds out the Fighter's Pass.
- Extra Character #1 - Xenoblade Character (Elma, Rex/Pyra, Whoever): Rex/Pyra missed the boat for base game and with how Xenoblade Chronicles seems to be doing these days, I think we're going to see another character before everything is said and done. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition was really the sort of push I needed to go in on this idea seeing as it was positioned as a major release and will mark the technically third (counting Tora as its own thing since it released standalone) Xenoblade on Switch, with the distinct possibility of a Xenoblade Chronicles X port also down the road I'm imagine. Nintendo's really pushing this brand and people really seem to support another character in Smash, so I think this might finally happen now that there are more characters. I would think Nintendo would want another advertising character in, but I don't think Sakurai will go for another Fire Emblem character, so they'll turn to Xenoblade.
- Extra Character #2 - Geno: I don't really need to explain too much here I don't think. Sakurai wants him, the fans want him, Square Enix already has their biggest two series out of the way and in Smash, and the Geno Mii costume just hasn't shown up at all. I think Sakurai definitely will make another request happen with additional fighters on the table, and Geno just seems primed for that position in many ways. I think if he goes the route of another Fighter's Pass, Geno would be the character in the Banjo & Kazooie position so to speak. I know everybody who has a fan favorite will say this, but I'm really hopeful about Geno's chances right now haha.
- Extra Character #3 - Travis Touchdown: I started thinking about who hadn't made it into Smash from Japanese developers since Sakurai always tends to focus more on them than Western developers. I realized one of the more notable development studios and developers to not be involved in Smash in anyway was Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture. We know that Suda and Sakurai are in contact (I think friends? but I'm not certain on that, Suda is given a special thanks in Ultimate's credits though!), and we know that Suda wants Travis in Smash. Here's Source Gaming's interview with Suda that pushes me over the edge with this prediction: https://www.sourcegaming.info/2017/05/26/straight-from-the-source-goichi-suda-no-more-heroes/. With the recent release of Travis Strikes Again, and the upcoming release of No More Heroes III, both exclusive to Switch and the sort of underground fan base that has always existed for Suda and No More Heroes in the Nintendo community, I think Travis comes to Smash.
- Extra Character #4 - Crash Bandicoot: In terms of classic gaming icons, Crash Bandicoot is definitely one of the bigger icons not currently in Smash. He's a classic character from the PS1 era that was pretty damn popular in both Japan and the West. He's become one of the more requested fighters for Smash basically overnight, and he's in the middle of a huge renaissance as a character thanks to the N'Sane Trilogy and Nitro Fueled remakes, both of which released to great sales on Switch (The N'Sane Trilogy is the second best selling third party Switch game as of May 2019, only behind the third party game that has freaking Mario in it: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...lling_third-party_switch_games_as_of_may_2019). The only issue with Crash is that he belongs to Activision... BUT, we saw them willing to work together for Bowser and Donkey Kong figures in Skylanders, so I'm going to take that as a good sign of what could happen with regards to Crash. He's also a Western character, so that puts him in a tougher position (again, the way Sakurai talked about Western stuff in the most recent Banjo & Kazooie analysis video has made me more approach Western characters with more trepidation), but I do think he would be one of the characters that could most easily over come that obstacle.
- Extra Character #5 - Capcom Character (Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright, or Dante): Capcom has so many damn IPs that are legendary around the world, and half of them get decent support for Smash. As the third party that has contributed pretty much the most to Smash (only being beaten by Sega because they got a third fighter in DLC), I suspect there going to be up for more crossovers, and these characters are on fire right now with the great titles released in the past couple of years and they all provide potential to continue going with the crossover motif of new universes to add into Smash. I have no idea which one gets picked given that they have various reasons to win out over another, but Capcom just has such a crazy number of IPs that it's really hard for me to not see another one happening before everything is said and done.
I'm actually cutting off predictions there because I'm not certain if they'll fill all the remaining spots, so I cut this list to a handful I would predict as having some of the best chance to get into Smash (though not necessarily my absolute most wanteds or favorites, except Geno of course). There are some notable characters that I didn't include that I briefly wanted to touch upon:
- Doom Slayer - His games don't do super well in Japan, and despite all the DOOM buzz that's going on right now and seemingly in favor of his inclusion, I've started to reassess his likelihood. I wouldn't be surprised to see him, but my confidence has fallen in his inclusion.
- Sora - He's always going to be in the periphery and we have no idea if he's also held up because of rights or not. He's in a super weird position and kind of always will be, but I still haven't seen anything for me to think of him as more likely.
- Bandai-Namco Character - We're currently eight additional third party characters removed from Pac-Man's inclusion and we haven't seen them return once. I definitely think it's possible one might get in say from Tekken, Soul Calibur, or even Dark Souls... but I'm just honestly doubting one as being any sort of priority.
- Bandanna Dee - I don't Sakurai has an inherent bias against later Kirby stuff, but I do think he just doesn't consider it an absolute priority to be represented. He's a big fan request though, and if we do end up not getting stages with characters, I think his likelihood jumps dramatically. He almost made the list as is though, so he could easily be on there as well.
- Waluigi, Isaac, Bomberman, etc. (Assist Trophies in general) - So, I debated with myself on this topic and I decided I was going to wait to see on assist trophies. Waluigi got a lot of vocal outcry, as did Isaac, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an Assist Trophy get the full upgrade... but these characters do have defined roles and models of a decent magnitude in Ultimate, so I'm curious to see how Sakurai treats them and if we'll see more than one (I really doubt we're going to see more than one or two get upgraded at best though). For the sake of discussion, I'm just not going to include them yet, but patiently waiting to be proven wrong on this point and see what Sakurai does.
- Professor Layton - Level 5 is another arguably big developer in Japan without a character, and Layton would likely be the obvious choice unless Yokai-Watch gets another big return. But then Level 5 is moving on from the Professor Layton character and the series was once far more popular than it is now. So, I ended up not including Layton or any other Level 5 rep.
- ARMS Rep - My bias is probably showing, but I just don't expect ARMS in Smash and nothing's changed my mind on that front. If ARMS 2 gets announced or something, then this changes significantly.
- Steve - No Mii costume was also good for him... but Steve has quickly become much less talked about and less of a factor in speculation after not being a huge one beforehand. Minecraft is still huge and in a bit of a resurgence... but I'm just not really sure what to make of a character's chances at this point. Sakurai does like Minecraft after all!
- Dixie Kong - Another entry that becomes more likely without further stage DLC. She's very similar to how I see Bandanna Dee in that she might happen, but also might not. She's a good choice if Sakurai wants to add a fairly popular female character, but Donkey Kong also just hasn't had anything new recently and nothing is really on the horizon for the series, so we'll see.
There's more I could address, but those were the main ones I was thinking of when making this list. If we get more characters than five new ones, you can take several out of the "Don't Know" section and apply them to the predictions. If you've somehow read this entirely too long of a post, you have my thanks haha.
Edit: Forgot to mention that Reimu Hakurei is one of the wild cards I'm horribly unqualified to predict about. She's apparently huge in Japan on the indie scene... but I know nothing about the Touhou games or her popularity/influence, so I'm just not going to put her anywhere in my predictions besides a slight acknowledgement. It's possible she blindsides a whole bunch of people by being a fighter, but who knows?
