I'd rather take the actual Colonel, 'specially since we already saw both his silhouette and Iris.
On Signas, the trailer shows him looking stressed after talking to shadowy (human?) guys. Apparently we're witnessing some form of government outside of the Hunters putting pressure on him, and if that's the case, then he can FINALLY stay at the Hunter Base without being written off as doing absolutely nothing. As long as he's not reduced to the cheerleader that he was in X8, I'm fine.
On ProtoMan, IIRC, him being a "prototype" of a fighting robot is mainly a RubySpears thing. In the games he is a "prototype" of a humanoid robot, later modified for combat by Wily.
Also on DeviantArt, Rumble, DLive.tv, and the Fediverse (@freespeechextremist.com and @bae.st)