User blog comment:Antares2/DLC Missions (Idea)/@comment-1958269-20120602180125

They're definitely setting up Aria for DLC, much like they did with Liara in 2. As for the Zaeed idea, the problem is that he was a DLC character for 2, who could also have been killed prior to the events of 3. This would effectively lock players out of content they paid for. BioWare's already skirted around that in the past. The DLC party member in Dragon Age 2 was originally meant to be Nathaniel Howe from Dragon Age: Awakening, but since he could die, he was replaced with a suspiciously similar character named Sebastian Vael.