Does Sailor Moon Crystal contain the Black Moon arc of the manga (Pluto and Chibiusa)? Has it been officially stated anywhere by a representative at the production company whether Sailor Moon Crystal's 26 total episodes cover the Black Moon arc of the manga (Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto, and the Black Moon Clan, equal to season R of the classic anime series)?  Has it been stated anywhere that it only covers the content of the Dark Kingdom arc of the manga (equivalent to the first season of the classic anime)?

Crystal has covered in a mere 8 episodes the equivalent of 33 episodes of the classic anime series which contained 46 episodes total.  In other words, it has covered 72% of the classic anime's first season content within only 31% of Crystal's scheduled episode count. I know that Crystal is based on the original manga, that it is not adapting the classic anime, and that the manga storyline progressed much faster (less filler), but even so, that's a big percentage of the manga's Dark Moon arc to have already shown us in only 8 episodes.

The opening animation sequence does not include any characters introduced in the Black Moon arc, but then again, it could receive a new animation sequence mid-run at the point in time when that manga arc would begin (without a second season needing to occur to herald the story arc shift).
Note: I'm not sure if anything had come up by October, since I haven't really followed Sailor Moon beyond watching the biweekly episodes and I don't know Japanese. But some announcement (referred to here) seems to have been made in early November at an anime convention in Tokyo. The fact that there apparently was speculation before this suggests that no announcement had been made before the anime convention. (I found out about this mostly since I'd read about a newly released trailer, and wanted to find some details about it.)



Looking from some recent news sources (e.g this one from November 8), it seems that the second half of SMC will cover the Black Moon arc.

A official trailer was apparently recently released (December 27), and from ANN, we have:


  The anime premiered on July 5 and airs on the first and third Saturdays every month. Starting on January 17, the second season includes the story from the original manga's "Black Moon" arc and features Chibi Usa. The Comic Natalie website posted more images from the upcoming episodes.


Initially I was sceptical as to whether this new "season" mentioned in some sources was referring to part of the current SMC or to an altogether new production after this one finishes, but the date given (January 17 next year) implies that it should be within the current production.