Every Returning GTA Character Ranked by Likelihood for GTA 6

One of the inevitable questions surrounding Grand Theft Auto VI is whether Rockstar will bring back any familiar faces from the series' past, from Tommy Vercetti and Carl Johnson to the Grand Theft Auto V trio. It's a fun game everyone likes to play, even though most of it is wishful thinking considering how Rockstar Games usually builds its worlds.

Instead of adding another wishlist, we ran through previous characters who could turn up in Vice City or anywhere else in Leonida when Grand Theft Auto VI comes out, ranked by how likely a cameo really is, and why.

Fair warning, though: fan favourites don't make reoccurring appearances. Also, the GTA series doesn't follow a continuous timeline. The older games, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto III, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, are all part of the 3D Universe. Everything from Grand Theft Auto IV onward is part of the HD Universe. They share names, cities, and a certain attitude, but they are not the same world.

GTA 6's Vice City is a brand-new, modern, HD Universe take on the same fictional city Tommy used to run around in 1986, but it is set in a different continuity. Of course, who's to say a version of Tommy doesn't exist in this timeline?

Let's start with the obvious, the trio of Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips. They are all HD Universe characters, so unlike the older legends, they are at least eligible on paper. The problem is that Rockstar almost never brings a former protagonist back to headline or co-star in a new mainline game. It lets them retire.

Michael would be pushing sixty by the time GTA 6's modern setting rolls around, a retired family man whose whole arc was about getting out, and dragging him back to the middle of a new story would put to waste everything his ending stood for even though it was nice seeing him again in Grand Theft Auto Online. Of course, he could be Johhny Klebitz'd.

Trevor is a fun thought, a chaotic wildcard who could theoretically wander into anything, including a brutal sendoff that the actor himself wants to happen.

Franklin is the interesting exception. He is the youngest by a mile, only in his mid-thirties by the time GTA 6 is set, and Rockstar has kept him active more recently than the others. A man who runs a celebrity-fixing operation in Los Santos turning up as a contact, a voice on the phone, or a quick crossover thread is the kind of low-cost nod Rockstar actually likes. Lester Crest belongs in this same tier.

The legends, Tommy Vercetti, Carl Johnson, Lance Vance, are almost certainly not coming back. These characters belong to a completely different reality, a continuity Rockstar closed the book on nearly twenty years ago. GTA 6's Vice City shares Tommy's city's name, its Miami DNA, and absolutely nothing else. Bringing Tommy Vercetti into it as the same canonical man is a matter of him not existing in this world at all.

What you might get instead is a reference. The studio reuses names, likenesses, and myths across its universes all the time. A modern Vice City character who happens to share a name with a 3D-era icon is entirely possible. That said, there is nothing stopping the writers from creating a version of 3D era characters to inhabit this HD universe.

GTA IV's Niko Bellic sits in a weird middle spot here. He is at least from the HD universe, but save for a passing nod in GTA V, Rockstar has shown zero interest in revisiting him or Liberty City, although rumors do suggest Lucia is from the fictional Chicago-New York hybrid setting.

With that said, Rockstar carries its world-building forward far more readily than it carries its stars. Lester Crest, the wheelchair-bound fixer who planned half the heists is the perfect example. A behind-the-scenes contact does not need a plausible reason to have aged into a new city or a youthful excuse to remain relevant. He just needs a phone.

The same goes for the franchise's radio personalities, running brands, in-world celebrities and companies. Those reappear constantly, because they cost nothing and they make the universe feel continuous.

While we're speculating here for the msot part, Rockstar has a clear track record. Within the HD universe, it happily reuses characters, which is why the GTA V trio all show up in GTA Online. Within the old 3D universe, it did the same, sending Vice City's Ken Rosenberg over to Los Santos, and it proved with Red Dead Redemption 2 that it will absolutely revisit beloved characters when the continuity allows, building an entire prequel around faces from the first game.

Continuity is important for Rockstar, though. The studio brings people back inside a shared timeline. It does not reach across the reboot to yank 3D-era icons into the HD world, and vice versa.

The most realistic returns are Lester and Franklin, a scattering of recurring brands and radio voices, and maybe, if Rockstar is feeling generous, a background wink at Michael or Trevor. The Vice City reunion tour that fills every comment section is the least likely outcome of all, and the timeline only makes it worse. Fan service isn't the priority here.

If Rockstar will tease a genuine cameo, the Extended Look premiering on Netflix on August 27 is the obvious stage for it, and it is worth watching with that in mind, just don't expect too much. Because at the end of the day, GTA 6 is about Lucia and Jason, and Rockstar has spent a decade building them precisely so it would not need to lean on anyone else's legacy.