I largely prescribe to the Blog Theory because the 3 characters a week average seems intentional and, as Golden pointed out, they would have to abruptly disrupt it in the later weeks for multiple weeks for it to not be at least viable. My personal thoughts are that 3 newcomers and 3 echoes are the safest bet for the base roster. The Direct in August gave us 5 so plus 1 isn't a huge stretch plus, if you really want to be a smartass, the E3 trailer gave us 67 reveals and with 6 being previously cut characters, bumping up the "new" reveals to 8 when you throw in Daisy and Ridley. That said, 6 would be my personal low-ball while 8 would be optimistic but not totally unreasonable.
I largely prescribe to the bare minimum predictions that a lot of people have too: Ken, Inceniroar, Shadow, and Geno. I'm still on the fence about Steve but it wouldn't be too weird at this point, especially with Microsoft and Nintendo joyfully rubbing their cross platform options in Sony's face for the past year. Going back to my original prediction, if I were totally swerve Steve, I'd say Skull Kid or Isaac for a new character and Dixie for an echo to round out my 6.
What seems to be currently going for Isaac:
-Smash Twitter pic may very well have been a subtle Golden Sun reference.
-Well known success in the Smash Ballot from a wide variety of straw polls.
-Considered by many to be one of the Big Five that missed Brawl (Geno, K. Rool, Ridley, Megaman, and Isaac) with a tangible Smash fanbase that has been visible since 2005.
-Golden Sun recently getting its copyright renewed two years early for some reason.
My conclusion: probably playable (either base or DLC) or returning as an AT.
Things going for Skull Kid:
-Majora's Mask 3D coming out the same year Ultimate began development.
-Skull Kid's AT being notably absent.
-Skull Kid technically falling in line with the Mii costume theory.
-DK and Metroid finally have be their first newcomers since Brawl, making Zelda stick out even more with its now three Links.
-Playable in Hyrule Warriors and was noted early on as one of the new characters for the 3DS version.
My conclusion: either playable (base or DLC), a boss, or somehow a part of Young Link's Final Smash.
Dixie is an interesting case given her history. She was supposed to be a pair with Diddy in Brawl but proven to be too technically difficult so she wound up by herself but ultimately cut. In place of this Diddy had Dixie's colors in both Brawl and Smash 4. This lines up with what Sakurai has said about echoes: they could pass as ALTs if it weren't for certain details that make them unique in their own right. Dixie's are pretty upfront (hint: its her hair). All of Diddy's moves would make sense on her except the rocket barrels and cartwheel, leading us into a Chrom situation.
Dixie as an echo also works because Diddy and Dixie have virtually the same proportions except Diddy had a tail and Dixie has a ponytail. She also passes what I call the squint echo test. Put Luigi in his Waluigi colors, step back like 30 feet from the TV and squint. Would he pass as Waluigi? No. Why? Because the portions are very different. Waluigi is by design very lanky to an extreme so neither could pass for the other. Now, do the same for Peach's Daisy ALT. They are virtually indistinguishable and you could do this for every echo so far. Diddy's Dixie colors are the last major example of this given Galacta Knight and Jeanne were already confirmed as ALTs. This added to the fact that Tropical Freeze was still relevant and a very successful game when Ultimate began development makes me feel like they would have to go out of their way to completely ignore Dixie this time.
My conclusion: playable (echo *likely* or semi-clone *unlikely*) or somehow a part of Diddy's Final Smash.
