Shawn Fonteno, voice and mo-cap actor for Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online’s Franklin Clinton, is famous for pulling the GTA community’s leg. Known for stirring the pot with hints and allusions to new content, this time he’s posted something much more tangible – a work-in-progress character model of an updated Franklin.
Posted to Instagram on his verified profile, Fonteno shared a screenshot of an incomplete 3D character model showing a shirtless and decapitated – that’s just how the models work, don’t worry – Franklin with an updated and slightly changed look. The new model’s differences are subtle and few, and probably wouldn’t have been noticed if seen in a context with less fanfare.
The post was shared with the caption “almost finished”, further confirming that this is a work-in-progress model, rather than a finished model that was simply loaded up in a viewer or other dev tool. Naturally – despite Fonteno’s past shenanigans – this post kicked up a veritable storm of speculation. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Not only did Rockstar Games just recently, finally, officially confirm that GTA 6 is indeed in development, but they also confirmed that the release date of the Expanded and Enhanced next-gen update re-release of GTA 5 is launching on March 15. Additionally, Franklin recently starred in The Contract, a story-driven GTA Online DLC, and the developers stated that more is to come.
The most likely conclusion to draw is that Franklin is getting a new look in subsequent chapters of this new GTA Online storyline, being a central character and all. In-game time is progressing, so it makes sense that returning characters would get updated designs.
This could also be Franklin’s new model to be used in E&E, which will not only feature updated graphics and other technical improvements, but brand new content being added to story mode for the first time since release. Naturally, Franklin would be involved in any new GTA 5 content, and a new model might be warranted.
Of course, despite these two very logical and clear cut explanations, many in the fandom jumped to the conclusion that this is a model for Franklin in GTA 6, because of course they did. This, naturally, is highly unlikely – but that has never stopped speculation before, has it?
That said, the possibility is still there – we still don’t know anything about GTA 6, and the leaks are inconsistent and vague to say the least. In any case, we’re bound to hear more news about this new outing of Franklin’s soon. Or not. That’s always an option with Fonteno’s hints!
