I will agree on the recency and Lucina being decided after this statement was said. However, as
we don't know how Dark Pit is in this game (alt color, alt costume, clone, or unique-moveset but his model looks like Pit),
there is no way to know if he was a "late minute addition." This especially holds true since sakurai says she was
lucky to be promoted from Alt. Costume to Fighter and how the build was down to fixing bugs and errors diligently for the Japanese 3DS version by the time Lucina was confirmed.
But when it comes to newcomers, we have 3 from E3, 2013 (
), 3 between the E3's (
), 5 characters are 3 parts of E3 2014 (
) because if Sakurai states that Sheik made the roster 26 in Melee, it means it was 39 in Brawl and likewise the Mii fighters should be considered three characters in one "slot" akin to
, and finally we have gotten 3 post E3 2014 (
/
,
Shulk) officially confirmed.
3+3+5+3 brings us to 14 characters officially deemed newcomers. The video leaks unofficially confirms Bower Jr. and the Junior Copter as a newcomer, bringing us to 15. Dark Pit and Duck Hunt still brings us to 17, with 15 or 16 planned from Day 1 if not early development (according to how Sakurai stated he pre-planned the roster).
I never said Mewtwo was a newcomer. I was saying that with the 5 unknown slots if the roster shown was indeed true,
and
all have chances still. This would leave room for two more newcomers, bringing the total to 19. However, if
returned in a Fourth of the 5 slots, that would only leave one slot open for a newcomer who would bring the total to 18. This is all theorycrafting based on what we know officially, what was shown in the leaked gameplay videos, and the original leak roster from 4-chan/ESRB.
With 5 slots of mystery if this leak is true and the size doesn't expand out for another column horizontally (6x10) or vertically (7x9), neither of which I see happening any time soon, we have our hands tied. More veterans returning means less spaces for newcomers. I am not saying "Oh because Lucas made it back we don't have King K.Rool" because that's a stupid arguement. I am saying that there are only a few seats left in the movie theater if the ESRB sent out a real-but-incomplete guest list.