Well, I am not a professional psychologist,
but I do play one on the Internet and if I am allowed to psycho analyze this, usually when a rumor or a piece of information first leaks out, more times than not, it usually ends up being true in the end. If one recalls 1998, when the GINO design first leaked online, Dean Devlin had to release an immediate statement telling fans that was
not the design. Well, we all know how that turned out.

Then there was the rumor that Cumberbatch was indeed Khan in “Star Trek Into Darkness” which if I recall correctly, J.J. Abrams sort of denied it.
Of course, there have been other instances where it really was just a rumor and nothing more, but since Dougherty has already directed movies for Legendary, kept everything in budget and knows their system, that puts a little more logic into this gossip. We shall see what happens.