Suzumiya Haruhi 2 Anime Not A Sequel?

All hope of seeing the next Suzumiya Haruhi anime in 2008 was pretty much shattered a few days ago, when reports began emerging that the second season / sequel has been cancelled (sort of), and that a completely new Haruhi animation is now starting to take shape. The reason?

"they felt that they couldn't just do a 2nd season and that they wanted to do a completely new "Haruhi" again. They're still deciding on the concept for the new anime and how it'll be like and having meetings for how the story will go."

But is it really so?... One argument on the AnimeSuki forum is that this whole thing is just a viral marketing prank, and that "Haruhi Season 2 is still right on schedule". It sure wouldn't hurt if us mortals would know what this "schedule" is, exactly, instead of being left in the dark, guessing and speculating. Oh, wait, isn't that what viral marketing is all about?

Anyway, to ease the wait, here are some high-res scans from the Newtype article that sparked this whole thing - #1, #2, #3... and more on Canned Dogs.