Speaking of potential spoilers, I am at least thankful there isn't a spirit of Smithy for now, seeing as his appearance is supposed to be kept a surprise until the end of the game (the player is supposedly led to assume that Exor is the boss of the Smithy Gang until you reach Bowser's Keep).
Fun fact: In a television commercial promoting the game in North America, Exor was referred to as "Smithy the Sword", so even the commercial tried to throw the consumers off with Exor being the main antagonist of the game.
Mine was a huge reaction and plot twist after finding out the giant sword was named Exor, not Smithy... I'd also like to know why Exor's mouth is named NEOSQUID; I don't know if the game translator was high or what, but the name for his mouth always got me confused. Also, Chuggaaconroy had the same reaction when he encountered Exor, and he said, "IS THAT SMITHY?" I think Chuggaa plays his let's plays before he records them, but I'm not sure about his SMRPG series from 2008, that could've been his first, second, or third time playing it.
If Erdrick is in fact leakbait, do you guys think Geno would be runner-up as most likely?
The only other Square characters I can see getting in are someone from Final Fantasy, Geno, Neku, or someone from Octopath.
I can't see a Final Fantasy character because the composer is on a hiatus, so a FF character is unlikely. I honestly think Geno would be the next one running if Erdrick is leakbait and if Crono is out. I don't see Sora because KH3 is a competitor to Nintendo, plus the game isn't on the Switch, so I don't see him either. Neku is a little too late because his game came on the Switch back in September, and his game was on the DS, so having Neku would be weird because Nintendo wouldn't be able to promote anything, it's a character not many are asking for, and it's an underrated game; most of the sales come from Japan, so it's in a Dragon Quest situation with having most of the sales in one country instead of worldwide. (The game's sales are under 100k, that's even worse than Color Splash's sales.) A character from Octopath Traveler would be weird, but the DLC may lead to promotion for future games, and Joker is an example of that because there's a rumor going around that Persona 5 R is coming to the Switch. Also, the game was developed by Acquire, so Square will have to split profits with Acquire if they use an Octopath character.
Geno seems like the best decision:
-Not owned by multiple companies, he's 100% Square like Cloud is.
-He's the easiest to achieve because they can already use him.
-Sakurai wants him.
-He's a perfect fan service character that will make the fans happy.
-He will appeal to a lot of Smash players.
-Because Geno is owned by Square, they will get Geno's profits instead of splitting it with multiple companies they collaborate with.