23 years later, GTA fans think they know what happened to Claude
If you like the strong and silent type, chances are you swoon over Grand Theft Auto III's Claude. The GTA series made a serious leap when it delivered GTA: Vice City in 2002, with the late Ray Liotta lending his vocals to Tommy Vercetti. Still, he was far from the franchise's first protagonist.
While the early games didn't emphasise character development much, you can see Rockstar's direction with Claude. He's a sadly forgotten icon of the franchise, largely overshadowed by Tommy, Niko, and Trevor. Then again, Claude remains a man of mystery.
GTA fans have their own Claude theories
Over on the GTA subreddit, players are musing about where Claude has been all these years. With GTA 6 on the horizon, there are swirling theories that we'll see some familiar faces from the franchise's past. While Trevor, Michael, and Franklin make the most sense, everyone from Tommy to CJ has been rumoured to return.
As for Claude, remember that he's not dead. Despite GTA 4 including a "Rest in Peace" mural of Claude and the other 3D Universe protagonists, a 2011 Rockstar Newswire confirmed, "He certainly isn’t dead. What else became of him, we don’t know." This has left the door open to plenty of speculation about where he'd been.
On Reddit, the top comment reads, "He found his voice and went on to become a platinum selling artist. The end." Someone else joked, "He's now a motivational speaker, garnishing sums in the six-figure range for single lectures at universities."
A more serious suggestion guessed, "I would assume he's basically taken over Liberty city, all the gangs fear him but he seems unkillable, maybe might of left liberty to go rob and take over other places? not sure, but I reckon he is still alive 23 years later."
As well as someone saying they think he'll return in GTA 6 as a silent side character, another threw the cat among the pigeons as they concluded, "He moved to Los Santos and became the GTA Online protagonist." Either way, Claude's story might not be over yet.
Why was Claude silent in GTA III?
For those questioning why Claude wasn't exactly a chatty Cathy, former Rockstar dev Obbe Vermeij confirmed he was silent because the team had to cut corners. "At least part of it was that we had to cut corners," said Vermeij. "The audio dept [was] busy as it was."
This seemingly implies that there were plans for Claude to talk, but outside influences got in the way. Back when GTA was a much smaller beast, it was also a much smaller team. After GTA III was released, DMA Design was renamed Rockstar North, and the rest is history.
There's a lot to be said for silent protagonists, and up there with Doom Slayer, Link, or Gordon Freeman, you sometimes say it best when you say nothing at all.
