Highlights
- The potential protagonist of RDR3 could be Jack Marston, with a narrative that spans major events like the First World War and the rise of organized crime.
- If RDR3 follows this narrative, it won't probably have an epilogue with a link to future stories, since the days of the Wild West are over.
- RDR games love to use epilogues to close their stories and enable post-game free-roaming, but RDR3 might have a hard time justifying one.
With each passing year, discussion around a potential Red Dead Redemption 3 only grows more passionate within the franchise's community. Despite releasing almost six years ago, the narrative, characters, and intense detail of RDR2 has set a seriously high bar that its sequel will have a challenging time trying to exceed.
As no information is currently available surrounding Red Dead Redemption 3, many of its potential settings and featured characters are simply sourced from prominent fan theories. With Rockstar already setting such high expectations for the franchise, it seems that RDR3 might mark the end of a trilogy, finally wrapping up the immersive world of the Old West. If this is the case, then it seems that Red Dead Redemption 3 may have to lay the IP's penchant for narrative-bridging epilogues to rest.
As things stand, Red Dead Redemption 3 has not been officially confirmed by Rockstar.
Most Tragic Deaths In The Red Dead Redemption Series, Ranked
The Red Dead Redemption series is home to some of the most surprising and tragic character deaths, despite having former outlaws as protagonists.
The Finality of Red Dead Redemption 3 Would Leave No Room For an Epilogue
Red Dead Redemption Loves an Epilogue
Epilogues have always been a staple of the Red Dead Redemption franchise, offering important narrative bridges between games while allowing the player to free-roam after the events of a main story. Red Dead Redemption 2 famously offered the most comprehensive of these epilogues, giving players time to process the heavy themes of its core story by stepping into the shoes of John Marston, who is attempting to build a legitimate life for himself and his family.
Of course, this epilogue directly ties into the events of 2010's Red Dead Redemption, where John is essentially forced to hunt down the outlaw comrades from his past in order to preserve the family life that he built in the epilogue of RDR2. While nothing is known about Red Dead Redemption 3, this trend potentially indicates that the epilogue of the first RDR is a sign of what fans can expect from a potential third release.
RDR's epilogue comes shortly after the untimely deaths of John and Abigail Marston, leaving their son Jack in a state of grief and uncertainty. Despite the themes of RDR and its sequel stressing the futility of revenge and the growing impossibility of the outlaw way of life, Jack Marston continues the cycle in RDR's epilogue by adopting his father's gunslinging ways in order to avenge him.
Red Dead Redemption 3's Epilogue Would Mean Nothing Without a Narrative Pay-Off
Many theories currently point towards Jack Marston as the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 3, being the only character to feature prominently in both preceding games while still having a story that needs to be told. While this narrative approach would lose the western themes that have made the franchise so popular, the concept of following Jack through major events such as the First World War and the rise of organized crime in the 1920s is a fascinating one that RDR3 could capitalize on.
If this does end up being the setting of RDR3, then it seems important that the game should not feature an epilogue in the same way that its predecessors did. It is unlikely that the RDR franchise could move beyond the 1920s, and an epilogue without a link to a future narrative would break the fantastic tradition that the epilogues of past games have upheld so well. While there should still be a way for players to free-roam after beating the game, a dedicated epilogue would feel out of place without the narrative insurance that it will lead into a new experience later down the line.
