This has been bubbling in the background for years.
Due to the design of the rotor head it isn't much of a challenge to add a blade as most of the "components" are in the blade cuff which is now seperate from the blade as per BK117-D3.
The mast is a simple design. I would say the R&D was done for the BK117 D3 and they just scaled it down.
A trade in the design I would bet on as being 5 bladed the ARIS mounts are now gone.
Fenestron looks to be slightly larger and some stator vanes have been removed?
The cab has a lot more composite structure.
And yes it will apparently be a "variant". I know there was a struggle to keep the H145 as a "variant" of the BK117.
Even the 135 is up to about 27 different "variants". Wouldn't be surprised if there is only one engine choice and by the look of the skinny tailpipes a "T" model.