I keep wondering who I would become if Rockstar drags the timeline even further into the raw, half-tamed West. Even in 2026, the silence around the next chapter still leaves room for speculation, so I can only trace hoofprints through old campfire stories. The idea of another prequel refuses to die, and with it comes a thorny question: would Arthur Morgan return, would Dutch finally step out of his own shadow, or would Rockstar hand me the reins of someone I have never met?
Arthur Morgan Could Ride Again
Arthur was the strange case of a replacement who became the favorite. I still remember the skepticism before Red Dead Redemption 2: no one thought John Marston could be matched. Arthur did not just match him; he shouldered the whole story like a man carrying a saddle shaped by every hard mile behind him. If Red Dead Redemption 3 is another prequel, he is the obvious torchbearer.
His death at the end of RDR2 closed the door on any future appearance after that point, but a prequel would throw that door wide open. Arthur spent more than a decade riding with Dutch and Hosea before the events of the second game. That is a long stretch of untamed years. Rockstar could set a third game in the small, hungry days when the gang was only a few outlaws around a fire, or when the Van der Linde family first began drawing new members. I would love to see the time he mentioned with his lost son Isaac, a wound he carried quietly and briefly. A prequel could finally give that grief the room it deserves.
Since Arthur would have to survive any earlier chapter, he could remain playable through the epilogue without the kind of narrative contortion that killed my immersion in some other prequels. Bringing him back would feel less like fan service and more like returning to a pair of leather gloves that still hold the shape of my hands.
Dutch as the Fallen Star Turned Protagonist
Dutch has always been a kind of narrative gravity well, pulling every other character into his orbit whether they want to be there or not. In the first game he was John's final target, an old leader gone sour. In the second, he was the man Arthur respected until Micah's poison took hold. But what I have never seen is Dutch in the years when he deserved that loyalty. Red Dead Redemption 3 could make him the protagonist and show me the outlaw who built the Van der Linde gang from charisma and cold nerve.
Playing Dutch would not be comfortable, and that is exactly why I want it. His story is already a slow bleed toward the moment he loses everything, but a prequel could light the wick from the other end. I imagine his early charisma as a bright, unstable flame that drew every lost soul into camp like moths to a kerosene lantern. It would explain why Arthur and John followed him long after the cracks began to show. The downside is that his ending is already written in stone, but so was Arthur's, and that did not make his journey any less devastating.
The Case for an Unknown Lead
There is another path, and I keep stepping back to look at it like a trail marker half-buried in snow. The main character of Red Dead Redemption 3 could be someone I have never heard of. Arthur Morgan did not exist before RDR2, after all. Rockstar has already shown a willingness to move the timeline backward while introducing a brand-new face. They could do it again, perhaps with another early member of the Van Der Linde gang, someone outside the holy trinity of Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur.
The risk is obvious. A new protagonist is like striking a match in a dark barn: the flame either fills the whole space or dies before my eyes. Arthur set an impossibly high bar, and there is no guarantee that a stranger could reach it. Still, the unknown has a certain outlaw appeal. It would prevent the series from becoming too comfortable with its own legends. If Rockstar wants to surprise me again, they may need to hand me a character with no map and no history.
Weighing the Candidates
| Candidate | Why It Works | Biggest Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Arthur Morgan | Beloved, proven, and has decades of untold life | Repeating the same trick may feel safe |
| Dutch van der Linde | Shows his glory days before the fall | His doom is already fixed |
| Unknown character | Fresh, surprising, expands the world | May not live up to Arthur |
I keep circling the same campfire because the options refuse to settle. Arthur is the safe masterpiece, Dutch is the tragic reclamation, and the unknown is the dangerous spark. If Red Dead Redemption 3 eventually becomes another prequel, I will be ready to ride, no matter whose boots I am wearing.
Insights are sourced from UNESCO Games in Education, and they help frame why a potential Red Dead Redemption 3 prequel protagonist choice matters beyond fan preference: shifting perspective (Arthur, Dutch, or an unknown lead) can reshape how players learn a world’s values through role, consequence, and narrative context—exactly the kind of design leverage that makes character viewpoint central to how stories “teach” players what a frontier society rewards or punishes.