Eighteen days before Grand Theft Auto VI comes out, the three men who carried Grand Theft Auto V have a message for whoever plays Jason and Lucia. Nobody outside Rockstar can officially say who those actors are yet, so the advice is going to people with no names. It boils down to two things: do what Rockstar tells you, and brace yourself.
The comments came at MCM Comic Con, where Ned Luke (Michael), Shawn Fonteno (Franklin) and Steven Ogg (Trevor) talked to All Out Gaming. UNILAD Tech picked up the quotes on October 30. “To be honest, just listen to what Rockstar says. They’re gonna lead you in the right direction,” Fonteno said. “But get ready. That’s all I can say, is get ready. It’s a ride that they’re gonna be on for a while.” Luke kept it simple: “Just make sure that you appreciate the fans… fake appreciation, they can smell it… If you don’t have the fans, you don’t got nothin’.” According to UNILAD, Ogg added only two words: “Well put.”
The short version
- GTA V’s Michael, Franklin and Trevor actors told the unnamed GTA VI leads to trust Rockstar, get ready and treat fans properly.
- San Andreas’ CJ, Young Maylay, was on the same panel. He is Fonteno’s cousin and said the new leads will “grow with your fanbase.”
- GTA VI launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. There is no PC date yet.
- Rockstar has confirmed nobody as Jason or Lucia. Manni L. Perez (Lucia) and Dylan Rourke (Jason) are still just fan theories.
- GTA V has sold over 230 million copies. That number is the best explanation of why the 2013 cast never really left the spotlight.
What was actually said, and who said it
The UNILAD piece leaves out some of the panel. GamesRadar’s write-up says Young Maylay, who played Carl “CJ” Johnson in 2004’s San Andreas, sat with the GTA V trio. He opened with “get ready” before Fonteno said it. Dexerto also reports that Luke’s first piece of advice was “have fun,” and that the fan line came after it.
Maylay probably gave the most useful answer. “My game was 20 years ago,” he said. “So when [GTA] 6 comes out, you guys will be in my position.” He described the people queuing at his convention table as “the OG’s,” guys with gray hair walking up to say “Hey, man, you’re the guy CJ.” A new game, he said, doesn’t wipe out the old fans. In his words, “It’s not like everything’s gonna get shut down from you guys, because I wasn’t shut down because of you guys.”
Thirteen years later: what GTA V did to three working actors
Before September 2013, none of the three was close to famous. Luke had spent decades on commercials and guest spots. Ogg had moved to New York in 1999, quit acting in 2003 and come back in 2008. Fonteno had grown up in Watts and recorded as the rapper “Solo” for labels including DJ Pooh’s Lench Mob in the early 1990s. His documented family tie in the GTA world is his younger cousin Young Maylay, not DJ Pooh as some posts claim. Fonteno had also voiced a Grove Street gang member in San Andreas, so in a sense he was already in the family business, according to his Wikipedia biography.
| Actor | GTA V role | Before 2013 | Rockstar work since | Where they are in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ned Luke | Michael De Santa | 100+ commercials, TV guest spots (Law & Order: SVU, Boardwalk Empire) | A Red Dead Redemption 2 role (voice later dubbed over); back as Michael in GTA Online, December 2025 | Full-time streamer, about 532,000 YouTube subscribers, running “The Final Mission” GTA V playthrough |
| Shawn Fonteno | Franklin Clinton | Rapper “Solo,” films like The Wash (2001), a San Andreas bit part | Franklin returned in GTA Online’s “The Contract” (2021) | 2022 memoir “Game Changer,” the convention circuit, ASUS ROG ads with Luke and Ogg |
| Steven Ogg | Trevor Philips | New York TV guest roles, a five-year break from acting | Smaller GTA Online appearances | The busiest screen career of the three: The Walking Dead, Westworld, Better Call Saul, three 2026 films |
Ned Luke went the furthest into the fandom. He streams on YouTube, where he has roughly 532,000 subscribers, and in September 2026 he started “The Final Mission,” one last GTA V playthrough with guests. As he told viewers in a stream covered by Dexerto, “I’m going to get Solo on, I’m going to get Steven Ogg.” Being that visible has a cost. He was harassed during a Thanksgiving 2023 GTA Online stream and swatted again during a December 2025 stream with Rob Wiethoff. Rockstar has stayed on good terms with him anyway. It cast him in Red Dead Redemption 2, although his voice was later dubbed over, and in December 2025 it brought Michael back for GTA Online’s A Safehouse in the Hills update.
Steven Ogg went the opposite way, at least in public. In September 2025 a YouTuber asked how excited he was for GTA VI, and he said, “I feel nothing inside. I’m not a gamer. I’ve never played a videogame,” then told someone to read Dostoevsky instead, per PC Gamer. He has a reputation for prickly fan moments, but the clips that go viral usually show him playing Trevor on request. In 2023 a fan at a con asked him to “cuss at me,” and he did. In 2025 he barked “What” back at a small child at RetroWorld Expo. The kid cried, and Ogg broke character to comfort him, as GamingBible reported. Then October 2026 brought the twist. After joining Luke’s playthrough, Ogg said on stream, “Ned, we should also do this with the new one, when GTA 6 comes out,” Beebom noted. Thirteen years in, it looks like Trevor’s actor has become a gamer.
Shawn Fonteno sits between them. He reprised Franklin in GTA Online’s 2021 “The Contract” update with Slink Johnson (Lamar), and in 2022 he wrote a memoir about going from gang life to motion-capture stages.
Why you still don’t know who plays Jason and Lucia
Rockstar runs casting the way most studios guard source code. Luke has described auditioning for GTA V under fake project and character names, with “no script, just some lines.” When the first GTA V trailer went up, a friend recognized his voice and posted about it. “I was outed in like 15 minutes,” he told TheGamer in 2020, as Voice Over Herald recounts. He deleted his social media until launch.
The GTA VI process looks even tighter. According to the GTAVIoclock podcast, Rockstar emailed its voice cast in September after King of the Hill veteran Stephen Root told the Associated Press he is in the game. The message reportedly read, “We would like to remind everyone to please remember your NDA. The date you may announce your involvement is still November 19th.” Insider Gaming passed it on with a “pinch of salt” warning, and Rockstar has not confirmed it. One more fix to UNILAD’s version: Root confirmed that he is in GTA VI, but he did not name his character. Fan sites tie him to Brian Heder by comparing voices.
Then there are the rumors. Manni L. Perez, a New York actor with single episodes of SVU, Jessica Jones and Chicago PD on her résumé, is the fan favorite for Lucia. The evidence: she looks like Lucia, she sounds like Lucia, and she voiced two minor parts in GTA Online’s 2019 Diamond Casino update, including a blackjack dealer. On October 24 she did her first Instagram Live. More than 2,000 people tuned in while she talked about her dog and meal prep and ignored every GTA question, VICE reported. For Jason, the most common name is Dylan Rourke (Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family). That rumor traces back to a 2024 YouTuber claim citing a “reliable source,” and it rests mostly on resemblance. Neither name is confirmed. UNILAD also mentions the “CyberLeek” leaks, an anonymous account that has posted alleged gameplay footage, including a roughly 25-minute “Extended Leek” in October. Rockstar hasn’t authenticated any of it, and none of it names the leads.
Why hide them at all? Marketing, partly: Rockstar wants players to meet Jason and Lucia as characters, not celebrities. And partly self-defense, as Luke’s swattings show.
The release date, after two delays
A 13-year gap explains why Luke, Fonteno and Ogg still sign autographs for GTA V fans. Rockstar first targeted 2025. In May 2025 it pushed GTA VI to May 26, 2026. Then on November 6, 2025 it moved the game to Thursday, November 19, 2026, saying the “extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve,” per Engadget. It launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only. If you’re on console, we’ve already covered the November 12 preload and how much drive space it needs. Launch week also overlaps with another Rockstar story: the staff union vote.
May 2025 …… delayed from 2025 to May 26, 2026
Nov 6, 2025 … delayed again to Nov 19, 2026
Nov 12, 2026 .. preload reportedly opens (PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Nov 19, 2026 .. launch day, and the reported end of the cast NDA
The 230 million reasons this fame doesn’t fade
Take-Two’s latest figure, from its August 2026 report for the quarter ending June 30, puts GTA V at more than 230 million units sold-in, out of nearly 475 million for the whole series, per VGChartz. It added another 10 million between November 2025 and August 2026. That steady flow of new players is why a 13-year-old game’s cast keeps getting recognized.
GTA VI is widely expected to beat those numbers quickly. If it does, its two leads will be recognized by more players in their first month than most actors reach in a whole career. Young Maylay’s “you’re going to grow with your fanbase” is the optimistic way to say it. Luke’s swatting record is the other side of it.
Sources and further reading
- UNILAD Tech: GTA 5 voice actors issue warning to GTA 6’s Jason and Lucia
- GamesRadar+: GTA 6 actors get advice from Grand Theft Auto veterans
- Dexerto: GTA 5 stars explain biggest thing GTA 6’s actors need to do
- PlayStation LifeStyle: GTA 6’s Jason and Lucia cast get advice from GTA V actors
- Insider Gaming: Rockstar emails GTA 6 actors to say they’re still under NDA, it’s claimed
- Voice Over Herald: GTA 6’s voice cast can’t say a word until November 19
- VICE: Likely GTA 6 Lucia actress goes live on Instagram for the first time
- PC Gamer: GTA 5 Trevor actor feels “nothing inside” for GTA 6
- Beebom: Trevor actor Steven Ogg now wants to stream GTA 6
- Engadget: Grand Theft Auto VI is delayed to November 19, 2026
- VGChartz: GTA series sales near 475M, GTA5 tops 230M
- Rockstar Newswire: GTA Online: A Safehouse in the Hills
- Wikipedia: Shawn Fonteno
About this article: GeekBlog covers U.S. technology news, AI, phones, smartwatches and gaming. Every story is written and checked under our Editorial Policy. Spotted a mistake or have a story tip? Contact our editors.
