Halsin has been a companion. So has Minthara. But they are not origin characters.
They haven't been in early access, no. They have been camp followers. What makes origins origins is that we can play as them. They are both origins (pickable as a playable character), and companions (NPCs whom we can recruit to our party).
Companions have been a feature in RPG for a long time, so I find it unlikely Larian would just reuse the term while providing a fraction of what one expect the companion to be. Marian has announced Helsin and Minthara as companions - something we knew about Minsc and Jaheira but those two were a new info.
