In a Reddit thread on the Apex Legends subReddit, Respawn Community Manager JayFresh made an official remark regarding the recent outpour of data mining that, supposedly, revealed tons of new characters (err, Legends) before their proper release date.

Octane, Crypto and Prophet were already well-known leaks, but new names like Rampart, Rosie, Skunner, Wattson, Husaria, Jericho, and Nomad excited fans eager to learn unreleased info about the popular Battle Royale.

Official statement regarding leaks.

But, like any rumor, it should be taken with a grain of salt. JayFresh had this to say about the leaks:

There’s lots of stuff that has been datamined from Apex since launch and is swirling around the Internet. We know this stuff is fun to dig up and speculate about, but you should not treat any of that info as a source of truth. There’s stuff in there that is very old, or things we’ve tried in the past and cut--remember our design process is to prototype and play lots of ideas--and some of it may be things we’re still building for Apex Legends. Finding this stuff by no means confirms that it’ll ever come out. At best you should treat any posts about this as a rumor and the real info will come from us when we’re ready to show off what’s coming next.

Predictably, Respawn is encouraging its fans to remember that all data mining information and supposed leaks are just rumors. Many of the content revealed could be old or out-dated, so any fan using these leaks to make decisions about the game are doing so under shaky premises.

He also goes on to quickly explain that, despite rumors, Season 1 is not being released today:

"We’ll be providing details on Season 1, Battle Pass, and the next Legend very soon. It’s not coming out today."

This means the buffs do big character hitboxes, Caustic abilities, and other nerfs are still not live. Details will come "very soon" but details don't necessarily mean release dates. We will report on more Apex Legends updates regarding season 1 and the data mined leaks as the story continues to develop.