Red Dead Redemption 3 female protagonist would be a welcome change, fans agree

Aside from the mammoth that is the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Rockstar Games’ other crown jewel is the Red Dead Redemption series.

Rockstar Games’ western series began its life with humble beginnings with Red Dead Revolver for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox in 2004. It featured a protagonist that was clearly inspired by the ‘Man with No Name’, a character from the spaghetti western trilogy from director Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood. Unlike its predecessors, Red Dead Revolver was a linear game but now less fun and would lay the groundwork for 2010’s Red Dead Redemption.

Check out the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer below!

When Red Dead Redemption was released starring John Marston, it brought a vast open world of the Grand Theft Auto series but with a Wild West makeover allowing players to live a Western fantasy life as a badass gunslinger. Then Red Dead Redemption 2 arrived in 2018, a prequel to the previous game starring Arthur Morgan and it was certainly a bigger and arguably better successor.

Other than being set in the Wild West, one of the other major consistencies of all Red Dead titles from Rockstar Games is that they all feature a male protagonist, which is fine because the characters absolutely suit those stories. However, what if Red Dead Redemption 3 would feature a female protagonist instead of the typical male? That is exactly what fans have been discussing on Reddit.

“How would y'all feel about a female protagonist for RDR3?” asked Redditor buffalooo27 kicking off the discussion on the thread. “I was thinking, they had two male major protagonists in RDR and RDR2. If Rockstar Games were to develop RDR3, wouldn't it make sense to choose a female protagonist? They could create a character out of the blue, or re-use a character from the first two games. Maybe Black Belle would be cool or Sadie Adler maybe? What's your opinion?”

Personally, I really like the idea of playing Sadie Adler, without giving too much away, she was a pivotal and important character of Red Dead Redemption 2, so it would be an interesting perspective to learn more of her backstory. That being said, Dutch van der Linde would also be a compelling choice.

“Black Belle would be epic,” replied reddeadfan102. “I’d love a spin-off game where you play as Sadie in South America,” suggests Sirwillybottomthe4th. “I think there's great potential for Jenny, it would set up for an epilogue as Arthur in the short time they were travelling the Grizzlies,” said Susan Grimshaw, oddly not recommending Susan Grimshaw from Red Dead Redemption 2. “To be honest, gender doesn't really matter to me, as long as the character turns out to be interesting,” they continued.

Whichever story that Red Dead Redemption 3 may or may not tell, considering the fact that GTA VI hasn't even been released yet and Rockstar Games will want to milk that gravy train for many years to come, we could be waiting a very long time for its next Wild West game.

As for now, Red Dead Redemption is available on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, while its (pre)sequel is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. Oh and if you want to play Red Dead Revolver, it is currently playable on modern PlayStation and Xbox consoles, so you have plenty of Wild West goodness to keep you busy for the foreseeable future.