User blog comment:Captain Moch/WARNING! NEW CHALLENGERS APPROACHING! 7-14-14/@comment-5810621-20140714195250/@comment-26124383-20140714213855

Eh, I see no real reason why either would be cut. Both are villains (or in Meta's case, an anti-hero) who are very popular and big in their home series. The only things that are really going against them is Ganondorf being very unorignal and terrible in Brawl, and Meta Knight being OP as heck. Hopefully Ganondorf will get a new, better moveset (like Bowser), and Meta Knight will somehow be tamed by release.

Takamaru, though... I don't know. We already have two ninja characters, and one of them is a newcomer, so I'm not sure. Although an assist or stage or something feels at least guaranteed if he's not playable, because of some of the recent relevance.