The streets of Grand Theft Auto 6’s Leonida are bustling with all kinds of zany characters who assist carry Rockstar’s satire of Florida to life. Usually, this fictional mass of non-playable plebs discover a steadiness between being full randos and searching practical sufficient to be plausible. Doubtlessly, you may level to any character within the GTA 6 trailers thus far and be capable to discover no less than one human being IRL who appears to be like uncannily acquainted to that NPC; we’ve bought a inhabitants of over 8 billion to work with right here. However there are actually two completely totally different cases the place followers suppose that Rockstar lifted the likeness of two precise folks.
The primary time transpired again in 2024, when Laurence Sullivan, a person generally known as the “Florida Joker,” threatened Rockstar with a lawsuit over a personality he believed mimicked his viral mugshot from 2017. The character in query did bear some resemblances to Sullivan in that each of them clearly took cues from DC’s Darkish Knight, however finally Florida Joker didn’t sue the makers of GTA 6. He did, nonetheless, demand tens of millions of {dollars} in compensation in alternate for the “free advertising and marketing” he was offering them. To this point, it doesn’t seem that Sullivan was ever paid.
That very same trailer, which debuted GTA 6 for the primary time, additionally included a Black character adorned with dreadlocks, a white tank prime, and a hefty assortment of gold chains. This prompted a response from a TikToker named zoeepoppyy, who posted a video again in 2023 whereas standing subsequent to a nonetheless of the trailer.
“They accomplished cloned Tyrone,” the person mentioned whereas sucking his tooth in disapproval. “C’mon, can I receives a commission?” he requested. zoeepoppyy pointed to particulars like his hair, his chain, his glasses, in addition to facial options as proof for the copycat.
Two years later, Rockstar launched a second trailer for GTA 6 — and a few issues had been totally different. One in every of these tweaks seems to be the identical Black character who triggered the rip-off allegations. This time, nonetheless, the NPC is carrying a crimson hat, a lighter set of shades, a small mustache, and braids. Notably, each characters are carrying a white tank prime and the identical set of gold chains, the centerpiece of which shows some sort of horned animal.
Rockstar didn’t reply to a request for touch upon whether or not or not this was meant to be the identical character, or if the changes had been made in mild of the TikToker’s allegations. However judging from a Twitter submit that has been seen over 13 million occasions within the span of some days, followers are satisfied that Rockstar modified the character particularly due to the TikToker.
Whereas it’s doable each of this stuff are associated, it’s additionally price noting that video games in improvement change on a regular basis, for all kinds of causes. Jason, one of many protagonists, noticed an enormous visible improve in between trailers for GTA 6. His first iteration leaned extra within the generic course of gruff, buzzcut principal character. His newest model, alternatively, is affixed with a daintier movement of locks that may develop heavy with sweat. You’ll be able to even spot particular person strands of arm hair from afar. Actually, the whole trailer is filled with spectacular modifications starting from the background surroundings and climate to minor particulars like physics and muscle deformation.
That, and, Grand Theft Auto all the time appears to be ducking some type of likeness controversy. Infamously, Grand Theft Auto 5 noticed Lindsay Lohan sue Rockstar over a personality named Lacey Jonas. In that case, the choose dominated that whereas some similarities had been obvious that total, “vague, satirical representations of the fashion, look, and persona of a contemporary, beach-going younger lady that aren’t moderately identifiable as plaintiff.”
