It won't be a remake. They always start in a new console with a new gen.
They'd also never released a mid-gen game with new Pokemon before. Patterns can be broken.
I think it would make a lot of sense to have a remake as the first Switch game tbh. Every studio seems to really struggle when they try HD development for the first time, and GameFreak have never been the most technically proficient devs on top of that. A brand new generation under those circumstances would be
so much work. They already have to make a new engine for the Switch, and then they'd be designing a new region, characters and story as well? All while learning how to develop in HD? Even 2019 would seem unrealistically early for that, no? I mean Sun & Moon were likely in development for at least three years
on hardware they were comfortable with, and based on comments from Game Freak devs they were
not working on Pokemon Switch alongside Sun & Moon.
Starting on a remake would mean they at least have a solid foundation to build off of. It would trim down a lot of the work, and ultimately mean we'd get a much better new generation the following year once they'd worked out a lot of the kinks.
Put it this way: if a new generation comes out in 2018 (or even early-mid 2019), I'd have extremely low expectations for it.
