> Yamamoto was fired because the first 4 episodes of Lucky Star were boring.
A horrible and amateurish misinformation with absolutely no clue. Fall 08 is also highly unlikely, considering that Kyoani is going to do Clannad 2nd season this fall.
Anyway, it seems the production of the NEW (not 2nd) season has finally started.
http://www.haruhi.tv/fanclub/index.html
The announcement tells the "Surrogate Brigade Leader" is Ishihara Tatsuya (the director of Kannon, Lucky Star, Clannad),
and the "Assistant Brigade Leader" is Takemoto Yasuhiro (of Full Metal Panic series).
This is a kind of dream staff, which is the tag-team of two major Kyoani directors. Kyoani might know that they need to go all out to fill the gap of Yamakan.
And the picture of emotional Nagato may be a reference to The disappearance of HS.