Rockstar co-founder and former writer for franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption Dan Houser recently confirmed in an interview that the next Red Dead entry was going to solve Red Dead Redemption 2's infamous 'Gavin' mystery. Players first encounter this iconic Red Dead Redemption 2 mystery when they stumble into Nigel, an NPC who desperately asks the player if they've seen their best friend Gavin.
Nigel can be found a total of six times, four during the game's main story, and two during Red Dead Redemption 2's epilogue. Each time they meet the frantic Englishman, he grows more desperate in his search for his missing friend. While Nigel claims that Gavin must have been kidnapped, Red Dead Redemption 2 fans have developed an array of theories over the last seven years that suggest there might be more to this story than meets the eye.
Dan Houser Says Red Dead Redemption 3 Would Have Solved RDR2's Gavin Mystery
On October 31, Lex Fridman published an interview with Dan Houser to his YouTube channel. At around the 1:36:00 mark, Fridman says, "The number one question from the internet. It is so ridiculous but I must ask. Have you seen Gavin?" Houser bursts into laughter upon hearing the question, and Fridman gives listeners a bit more context to the infamous Red Dead Redemption 2 mystery. Fridman explains some of the most prominent fan theories behind RDR2's Gavin mystery, such as one that claims Nigel has a split personality disorder and is actually both Nigel and Gavin, and one that theorizes Gavin is dead and Nigel is living in denial.
Dan Houser says that, at least in his mind, the actual answer lies somewhere between those two theories. When writing/editing the letter players can loot from Gavin's body, Houser says that the "general vibe" between him and Michael Unsworth (senior writer for Red Dead Redemption 2) was that "either there was no Gavin or he'd long since left." Houser then states that there was a plan to shed more light on this mystery "over subsequent games." The exact resolution to this mystery, however, hadn't been decided during RDR2's development, with Houser confirming, "we hadn't really decided, in a future game, were we going to reveal Gavin was dead or was Gavin going to turn up having long since abandoned this maniac?"
Of course, Dan Houser left Rockstar back in March 2020. Though Houser believes a third Red Dead Redemption will happen at some point, the next entry might diverge from the plans the studio had when Houser was still on board. This means there's no guarantee that the mystery of Nigel and Gavin will ever be officially resolved.
Red Dead Redemption 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
- Released
- October 26, 2018
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
