Les acteurs de Red Dead Redemption II discutent de la nature du « plan ».

At a not completely full theater at New York Comic Con, the voices that never leave my head spoke about the game that I can’t stop thinking about. A full cast of the main actors from Red Dead Redemption II came to New York Comic Con this year to talk about a game that hit the shelves for the first time in 2018. For fans who played it at the time, and maybe still play it now, these characters are extremely real, and the people speaking in this dialogue and – in some cases, throwing each other around the stage for a mocap – somehow appear as if they are fantasies.

Why is the cast of a game almost six years old still at Comic Con in 2024? Probably because Rockstar hopes to promote the original version of Red Dead Redemption alongside the downloadable content (DLC). Nightmare Undead finally comes to the PC. It took Rockstar only 14 years to bring the original open-world cowboy game to a platform that PC players can officially play, but I appreciate there are many people still enjoying these games after years or decades since their release.

Because I’m damn sure I can’t stop thinking about Red Dead Redemption II. In my head, I still live the scene of Arthur Morgan, portrayed by Roger Clark, and Sister Calderón (Irene DeBari) sitting on a bench in front of the train, talking about the essence of a good person and what we can do in our lives when we know our time is coming soon.

Clark told the crowd: « This was the first time I’ve seen a cowboy admit to being scared of death. » Each other member of the acting team that rode the Comic Con theater coach bore a striking resemblance to their character, which is strange. Most of them were unable to do more than raise their voices to highlight the meticulous perfection of Holland van der Linde (Benjamin Byron Davis) and the villainous, ultimately redeemed John Marston (Rob Wiethoff). Clark doesn’t look like his character. The accent was born from a friend who mimicked his father’s weak Western tones.

Rockstar is known for including relatively unknown characters in its games. The developer also hires hundreds of them, but the VO host for the main characters on stage couldn’t delve too deep into their characters or even remember most of the lines from the game, as many of them started working on it for the first time almost 11 years ago. They are actors, but that doesn’t necessarily make them as sharp and eloquent as the characters they portray.

When a prominent fan asked the actors about their favorite lines, only a few could point to anything specific. Davis mentioned the phrase « This is America, you can always make a deal », which stands out as it comes in such a pivotal scene before Dutch really starts turning into the worst version of himself. Peter Blomquist, who played the « Snake » Micah Bell, said his favorite line is « Dutch, come here and dance with me », a dialogue that doesn’t exist in the game, of course. Blomquist jokingly swore that the dialogue exists somewhere on the cutting room floor of the game.

One prominent fan posed the question Red Dead fans asked themselves when playing the game. « What’s the plan? » Of course, the answer is that there wasn’t a single plan. There couldn’t be a plan when the world was telling Dutch and the entire Van der Linde gang that there was no longer a place for them, not with their lofty ideals – though they were dim.

Davis quotes from the game: « Make a lot of noise, make a lot of money, then get the hell out of here. »

What’s in store for the future of Red Dead? « Red Dead said Clark: « Number 3 is already out. » « It came out yesterday after lunch. »

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