I think Ultimate is going to be the last game in the series.

[FieryRebirth]

''Speaking with The Guardian, Sakurai responds to the idea of him staying in the game development world right up until retirement; his response is one that shows great self-awareness, both committing to his current role with Smash Bros., and looking ahead to what lies after it.

“I actually don’t feel that way at all! The best way to enjoy video games is to play what other people have made. But at the same time, I have a role. At this point I have been asked to create Smash and so I am doing that, and will continue to do so if the demand is there.“''​

(Taken from an article on NintendoLife.)

So yeah, the demand will likely still be there even after Ultimate, so I doubt the Smash series is going to die here with this game as Sakurai will keep making them so long as that demand is there. That said, it's much too early for talk about future Smash games when this one isn't even out yet.

Sakurai likely dug his grave with that statement. The loudest Smash fans are NEVER satisfied(Well, the Melee community notwithstanding)and will endlessly be demanding characters as fighters from him until the game is an easily modded, official MUGEN...

...Wait.

Sakurai has said multiple times that every smash game will be his last. Really melee and brawl were both supposed to be the last in the series but with it being a successful franchise I don’t think even after ultimate that will be the last.
And that’s one thing only money for Nintendo and it has a huge community why would Nintendo stop making smash when it countines to be successful and bring in the cash.
So no I don’t think ultimate will be the last game tho do think the next game won’t come out for a long time.

Yeah, he has. He is kind of like Hideo Kojima in that regard. When it comes to Brawl though, I knew he was not satisfied with that product, especially when he learned he wouldn't be able to fix the game's glitches and balance issues, so, I imagine Sm4sh was his first attempt at making a real Smash game with the tools laid out and not as many limitations.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

Olimar and the man himself, Wario?
I honestly cannot imagine a protagonist as great as Wario just getting removed, I can see him getting an almost new moveset, though. I can see him having a lot of more Wario Land powers added and less WarioWare/Smash moves. We need a character exclusively from WarioWare, if that were to happen.

Also, why do you think Shulk and Bayonetta should be cut? Or are these just characters you don't like?

Unless Xenoblade makes another big hit by the time Smash 6 rolls around I can't see them supporting Xenoblade anymore.
Sakurai recognizes that the community largely despises Bayo for being broken. IMO, she doesn't add anything I like, and I would remove her. Her game is just so unorthodox compared to the other games in Smash.
I don't take a liking to Pikmin, and Olimar is more resized than Ridley which is very annoying. He's pretty annoying to play against in the first place.
As for Wario....I wish they would make him relevant in the game he originated from. The only reason they say he's Wario Ware is so they oculd add him without being a Super Mario character. They wanted him in Melee.

 

[Deleted member]

So what's funny to me is, a lot of people were already predicting that after Smash for Wii U, the next Smash Bros. game would be a 'reboot' and feature far fewer characters (unless they ported it). Part of the reasoning was, how could you ever top such a full roster? Sure, the game was missing 7 veterans (Young Link, Pichu, Snake, Wolf, Ice Climbers, Ivysaur and Squirtle) but otherwise it had the most characters of any prior Smash game and especially with other 3rd party characters that required licensing negotiations, it just seemed that getting such a large roster wouldn't happen ever again. I distinctly remember Ash from Gamexplain making this argument, saying that you could only go down from there, not up.

Aaaaaaaand then we got all those characters back PLUS all the missing veterans PLUS even more newcomers. I guarantee you no one anticipated that. So....
1. don't think you know what's going to happen and
2. you never know what's going to happen.

Sure, some may argue that Ultimate could only pull this off because of its unique circumstances and Smash for Wii U being somewhat recent, but please see my two points above.

 

[Inoj]

"This will be Sakurais Final Smash"

 

[soviet prince]

Only ones I can't see getting cut is Olimar and Wario.

Same with Jigglypuff. She's among the Sacred 12.

if it's a reboot all rules are off the table including the sacred 12, does jiggly puff really need to be on here?

 

[Wiziliz]

Honestly, I don't see a reason for making Wario more Wario Land oriented, considering Wario Ware is doing pretty good.

Fair enough, but Wario Land was his first game series, and is an amazing 2D platformer series.

Unless Xenoblade makes another big hit by the time Smash 6 rolls around I can't see them supporting Xenoblade anymore.
Sakurai recognizes that the community largely despises Bayo for being broken. IMO, she doesn't add anything I like, and I would remove her. Her game is just so unorthodox compared to the other games in Smash.
I don't take a liking to Pikmin, and Olimar is more resized than Ridley which is very annoying. He's pretty annoying to play against in the first place.
As for Wario....I wish they would make him relevant in the game he originated from. The only reason they say he's Wario Ware is so they oculd add him without being a Super Mario character. They wanted him in Melee.

As for Shulk, I feel like being a unique fighter is another part of what makes him important enough to keep.
As for Bayonetta, well, unless Bayonetta 3 is her last game, it'd just be a bad move to take her out, given where she is with Nintendo now. There is a solution, however. Make her easier to beat. Just as Meta Knight wasn't awfully broken in Smash 4 like he was in Brawl, it's very likely that Bayonetta won't be as ridiculous in Smash Ultimate as she was in 4.
And with Olimar, you're playing a game where Princess Peach can fight Solid Snake and a boxer is able to survive being slashed at by swords and hold up in a fight against Samus Aran or Kirby. A resizing doesn't matter too much (and it makes sense given the toy aspect of the story).

Nobody really knows what will happen, though, as Mewtwo said above. Smash always surprises us. Maybe we'll lose Lucario and get Sceptile or Wurmple, maybe we'll lose Diddy Kong and get Donkey Kong Jr., it's way too unpredictable, but these predictions are heaps of fun anyway.
Something I can predict that will end up being true, though, is that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will not be the end of the franchise.

 

[AIM0001]

Mark my words. It’ll get rebooted come next Nintendo console. Give it 6-7 years. You’ll see.

 

[Tino]

I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the last game in the series. Ultimate already looks to be the...well...ultimate...Smash game in my eyes.