:(
McCoy’s answer also confirms what many already suspected: Titanfall 3 isn’t in development, and Apex Legends is its current Titanfall focus. (Respawn is also working on Jedi: Fallen Order, an under-wraps Star Wars game it briefly announced last year.)
Back in fall 2017, a Respawn source told Kotaku’s Jason Schreier “Titanfall 3 was well into development” and would release by the end of 2018. The reason for the hurry was that the modified version of Valve’s Source engine (used by the previous Titanfall games and reportedly also Apex Legends) - “was starting to feel dated”, and “Titanfall 3 might not feel or look as good if it came out too much later” - which, clearly, it did not.
This fits with what McCoy explained to me: that progress towards Apex Legends began after Titanfall 2, when the developer experimented with battle royale, “decided this wasn’t going to be a mode”, and chose to make Apex Legends “a game on its own”. It certainly feels like Apex Legends could have been a battle royale mode for Titanfall 3.