This thread moves too fast, so please - can someone enlighten me, why you fans seem to be convinced, that Cullen is NPC? Has it slipped somewhere at the PAX?
Ok so what has happened is that Cullen has been confirmed as a LI but not a companion by the Devs at PAX and they have also confirmed 'an even spread of classes' in the party. This is generally assumed to mean we have a 3 -3-3 split into warrior,rogue and mage companions. People are speculating that the 3 warrior positions are filled by Cassandra (confirmed), Iron Bull (confirmed) and the Grey Warden character who has been seen both in concept art and gameplay videos. Obviously this leaves no room for warrior Cullen to also join the companion followers.
The most popular solution for this issue is that Cullen fills a non companion role as the Inquisitors military advisor. There has been no confirmation from the Devs that anyone outside of Cassandra, Varric, VIVIANNE and Iron Bull are party members. (Edited for typing the wrong name

)
Phew, that took a while to write, I bet the question has already been answered by now.