Alex and NY stage at NYCC next month. People are going to weep and others will celebrate. That will pretty much confirm Urien.
Detective mode: on. Help me speculate based on the stages and character art Gaf.
If you look at both Karin and Ryu's official art, you'll see that both show different parts of the new Japan stage in their backgrounds. The same goes for Vega and Cammy's art, which both show different parts of the London stage.
This gives me great hope that all of the background art is in fact hinting at elements of an actual stage found in the game, which in turn could mean that Ken and Alex could very well share that New York stage shown in Ken's art.
Here's a list of stage elements as found in the official character art, grouped by characters that might fit in the same stage and by what is found in an actual stage so far:
- Chun-li -> shows a Chinese restaurant with columns and some neon signs -> is found on left side of the Bustling Side Street stage (China).
- Fei Long (going by the signs on the busses)?
- Yun/Yang?
- Cammy -> shows clock at a train station -> is found in the middle/right side of the London stage.
- Vega -> shows some glass windows, a half-round one in particular -> this seems to be the roof + left side of the London stage.
- Ryu -> shows an old Japanese temple with statue, Mt. Fuji and the moon -> all are present on the left side of the new Japan stage.
- Karin -> shows Japanese style bridge with moon and a building - all are present on the left side of the new Japan stage as well.
- Ibuki (due to the ninja o the left)?
- Bison -> shows a Bison statue, a honeycomb-like structure and what appears to be an Asian temple of sorts in front of the moon -> not found in any stage so far but I have a feeling it will connect to Necalli's stage due to the temple.
- Necalli -> shows a cliff side and an Asian looking (?) temple in the background -> not found in any stage yet but it could be linked to Bison's stage.
- Juri (assuming she will be hunting down Bison still)?
- Ken -> shows a street lined with New York-ish/Colonial style (?) office buildings and cars -> not seen in any stage yet.
- Alex?
- Nash -> shows those Egyptian looking Illuminati-ish statues -> they are found to the right of the Forgotten Waterfall stage in an inaccessible(?) section.
- Urien (Illuminati connection)?
- R. Mika -> shows wrestling ring with Japanese text -> not seen in any stage yet.
- Zangief/Alex?
- Birdie -> shows a tube station with a Colombian Roast logo -> not found on the London Stage despite the toilet on the left side being similar to Birdie's Alpha stage and him being English; maybe it will be featured in a new stage?
- Oro/Sean?
- Rashid -> shows a desert and Dubai-like city -> not found in any stage yet unfortunately.
- Urien (going by his 2nd impact stage)?
- Laura -> no art yet -> assumedly connected to Brazil stage with the tram, favellas and soccer statue on the mountain.
- Blanka/Sean?
- Zen -> no art yet -> perhaps connected to a new India stage?
- Dhalsim?
In short, I'm beginning to think that the stage selection will not be totally random and that the stages will be made in such a way that all characters, possibly including the first batch of DLC ones, will fit in one of them. This means that each stage will have to be designed in a way that it will fit 2 or even 3 characters, which is something they could accomplish by adding multiple parts to stages (behind breakable walls if need be), like in the Bustling Side Street, and by making each stage varied in its scenery when going from one side to the other (like the Japan stage and its old Japanese atmosphere on the left to fit Ryu and rich mansion atmosphere on the right to fit Karin).
Fake edit: if anyone is willing to add the character art, which I can't do right now, that would be great as we can then investigate them even more closely with this shared stage theory in mind.