At the 1:05 mark in GTA 6‘s debut trailer, you’ll be able to briefly spot a closely tattooed man chatting with a choose by way of a webcam sentencing. This character appears to be primarily based on a real-life Florida man who went viral in 2017 attributable to his seems and was dubbed the “Florida Joker.”
On December 5, 2023, Lawrence Sullivan—the Florida Joker himself—posted a video to TikTok wherein he claimed Rockstar primarily based the character on him and that they wanted to “speak” to Sullivan. Then on December 11, Sullivan demanded Rockstar Games and its mother or father firm Take-Two Interactive pay him $2 million.
“We gotta speak or [if] not you gotta give me like a mil or two,” Sullivan mentioned. “Florida Joker ain’t having that, y’all took my likeness, y’all took my life.”
On December 13 2023, Sullivan claimed he was going to sue Rockstar over the entire state of affairs. However, in March, he backed down and as a substitute requested for a number of hundred thousand to voice the character in-game. Rockstar has seemingly by no means responded to Sullivan’s threats or calls for.
On December 5, 2024—a 12 months after the trailer dropped—Sullivan uploaded a video on TikTok claiming his threats of a lawsuit had been simply him trolling. He then claimed that he was the explanation the GTA 6 trailer was so common. This saga continues.
