Whoever slots into the "main character" role (or the closest thing in an ensemble cast) will almost certainly be a human, regardless of how varied the rest of the cast is - for audience relatability reasons as much as marketing ones.
They will
look human. But GotG is the model, and the main character in that is only half human.
I'm also fairly confident there will be a tiefling in the party: they're fairly iconic to D&D in particular rather than fantasy in general (if there's a D&D-original PC race with any wider pop-culture recognizability whatsoever, it's probably tieflings), they add visual variety without needing CGI or even more extensive makeup, they're pretty straightforward to explain ("I'm part devil" is basically enough on its own), and they lend themselves to any of a number of natural story hooks to build a character around. Seems like a slam-dunk.
Yes, I agree. I would be very surprised if there is not a tiefing as a major character.
From there, I figure they'll probably have at least one elf or dwarf party member to bring a bit more "classic fantasy" feel,
I don't think old school grognards who reject any species added after 1979 are a major consideration.
If they have a dwarf (halfling/gnome) I expect they will use an appropriately sized actor, rather than messing around with scale doubles and differently sized props. So we will find that out from the casting.
What I expect they will have is a small CGI (or CGI/puppet) character, possibly a goblin, kobold or imp, even if that consumes a large chunk of the FX budget, because marketing says Rocket Raccoon, Baby Groot and Baby Yoda are popular. Look out for voice actors and people with mo-cap experience in the cast.
and then....any remaining slots in the party are basically a toss-up, though "no more than one party member requiring major CGI and/or makeup work" and "stick to races that require little to no explanation unless that explanation is tied directly to the plot" (no Gith unless the main villains are Mindflayers, for instance) seem like reasonable guidelines to me.
You don't actually need to "explain" non-human characters at all. There is very little explanation of the non-human characters in GotG. They are just there and accepted.
If I had to bet on any one particular lineup, it'd be human, elf, tiefling, goblin, and if there's a fifth it'd be a goliath. I feel like that strikes a decent balance with respect to variety, D&D-ness, classic fantasy-ness, and "not needing to exposit more than necessary"-ness.
Yup, there will be a "big guy" who could be a goliath, although their make-up would be dull - cast an actual big guy and paint him grey! Firbolgs look a bit goofy (literally). I would say dragonborn is more likely, it's more visually interesting (warforged is also possible). Personally, I would bet against an elf in the main party - overexposed. And I don't see any of the currently announced cast looking very elven, no matter how pointy you make their ears.
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