I have a friend who has bought 3 Edges, these things are indestructible for them... Bronco has never come out of their mouth...They need to replace their Edges, NOT because of issues, but age...and Explorer is the only option because I steer them away from the Escape/Bronco Sport...

It's Godzill time. Either in the GTD or a "new" GT......

But who's to say said vehicle can't be something that ties into those icons? 

The problem is Mustang and GT are icons with 60 year histories.  A new mid engined vehicle has none of that history so it would really just be an engineering exercise.  Which is great for us but pretty hard for Ford to justify.

A blast from the past, this story from just over 4 years ago now of a Ford gt prototype driving around making V8 noises and with emissions testing equipment which you would only do for a new engine. A lot of people said at the time this meant Ford was gonna offer a V8 for the Ford gt, which felt odd to me, such an extensive engineering change for a vehicle with very low sales volume in its final year. There was no way Ford was gonna invest that much money just to make like 50 cars out of it.    At the time, both myself and others theorized Ford was simply using the Ford GT as a mid-engine mule for a V8 engine, a way to test new mid-engine components without driving around in a camouflaged prototype.    It takes 5-7 years for the average car to be developed, so maybe Ford's CEO is referring to whatever that vehicle will end up being.    https://fordauthority.com/2021/08/ford-gt-prototype-pics-suggest-new-engine-longer-run-for-halo-car/    

For sure, the GTD is awesome, and it's sold out, but many enthusiasts would argue it doesn't captivate enthusiasts in the same way a low slung mid engine cars do.    It'll be interesting to see how far Ford wants to take this. By "game on" does Ford mean they'll just send the GTD back to the 'ring? Does it mean we'll get like a 1,000 hp even more hardcore GTD, or does it mean Ford will go all out with a new mid-engine model to take down the Corvette? No-one really knows. 

A coyote or one of the 5.2 variants with the 'ecoboost' treatment sure would be something in a GT, if Ford really wanted to go after the zr1. But, back here in reality it seems Ford isn't interested in playing. Hard to blame them when they charge huge money for all of their rare cars and sell them out, but it would be cool to see Ford go all in on something like that.

It's all good!  It's easier to see at a glance when the chart makes negatives/declines in red.     I said a chunk, not all.  I think all 3 have "benefitted" from Edge going away in that those three (Escape, Bronco, and Explorer) are the bracketing products for Edge, so naturally buyers would consider one of the 3 with Edge not available.   I would agree that a Edge and Bronco buyers are like a venn diagram, with 2 big circles with only a portion overlapping.

Greed!  If it came in electric, I'd have to tie my wife down to keep her from trading her Mach-E on it.

What if they make a next gen GT with a different body that can accommodate a v8? There was apparently a Ford GT prototype with a V8 was driving around years ago, but it doesn't seem like anything came of that.