"They're gonna make a former boss character their partner and head to the New World."
Apparently Oda mentioned this at Day 2 of JUMP Festa last year. I found it on NUMEROUS blogs when I was doing some research for the new section of my site.
I totally missed this.
Perhaps I was too busy having multiple orgasms over Jinbei.
Anyway, the 'partner' part is 'nakama' so how you interpret that…is up to you. Vivi IS their 'nakama' but is she currently a member of the CREW? No. So in many ways this could have several meanings aside from the obvious, "OMIGOD BENTHAM IS GONNA BE THEIR DANCER!!!!!1111FTW"
So this might be something that's already happened.
Or...