There's 6 open slots on the bottom when they show the stage select screen. It's safe to assume we're getting at least the 109.
Likely as DLC, there were spaces left on 3DS as well that didn't end up meaning much.
Speaking of "leaks," I really hate to bring up the stupid Gothitelle one again, but sense some people still buy it, I feel compelled to point out this inconsistency:
"Kruru" (King K Rool) and "DakuS" (Dark Samus? It was underneath regular Samus) were both listed, unsurprisingly.
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In Smash 4, King K. Rool's trophy and Mii hat are both named "kingkrool" and not "kruru" and Dark Samus' assist trophy/trophy are named "darksamus."
Doesn't mean they'd code it that way every time, they could use shorthand or transliteration for characters to ease their work since they'd have to write them out more for playable characters, remember pra_mai (most believe to be Plusle & Minun transliterated & shortened) in Brawl and Marth has been coded as Mars before too.
No way in hell we would get Sora before Geno. Sorry Sora fans.
Sora isn't Square-Enix, so they aren't competing. That said, Sora is more well known then Geno.
I thought to be a 3rd party you had to be iconic and/or have close ties with Nintendo. Also Kingdom Hearts is kinda cringey not gonna lie
Kingdom Hearts has had several games on Nintendo handhelds, Chain of Memories (GBA), 358/2 Days (DS), reCoded (DS), and Dream Drop Distance (3DS). However, close ties are clearly not needed if Snake and Cloud got in.
Sora is likely the most well known Action RPG protagonist and an RPG icon, known to most gamers and just somewhat under Cloud.
The last bit is purely subjective and thus unimportant.
The COO of Disney Japan stated he'd love Sora to be in Super Smash Bros as long as Sakurai, Nomura, and the fans wanted it.
As for the reality comment, people used to say the exact same thing about Cloud, stating it was impossible he'd ever be in Smash for many of the same points you've listed.
I don’t feel like explaining just look it up. Do you really think Sora is likely tho?
Sora is as likely as any popular 3rd Party character. In my opinion, he's one of the most likely and would likely come the closest to Cloud levels of hype (remember that Europe didn't get Super Mario RPG until the Wii so many there don't have the nostalgia & connection to Geno that NA & JP have). He'd kinda be perfect as DLC.
Cloud kinda blew the lid off of what is and isn't likely as a 3rd Party character, now the only unlikely ones are less popular characters in a series with more popular options (like Tifa to Cloud or Chun-Li to Ryu), not-so-popular 3rd Party characters, and other company's 1st/2nd party characters (excluding Banjo-Kazooie due to fan demand and Microsoft's willingness to work with Nintendo).
Any very popular 3rd Party has a fair chance.