‘Florida Joker’ Says He’s Not Suing Rockstar Over GTA 6 Anymore, but Does Want to Be Paid to Voice the Character

‘Florida Joker’ Says He’s Not Suing Rockstar Over GTA 6 Anymore, but Does Want to Be Paid to Voice the Character

ByNews Polite

The Florida Joker is back, this time to tell Rockstar he’s not going to sue over a character in GTA 6 anymore. Rather, he’d very much like to voice the character instead.

First, some background. Lawrence Sullivan — aka the Florida Joker — had complained about the GTA 6 trailer by threatening a lawsuit against developer Rockstar Games unless he was paid.

GTA 6 takes place in the state of Leonida, Rockstar’s version of Florida, and following the release of the record-breaking debut trailer fans noticed several real-life references. Among them was what appeared to be a reference to Sullivan, a tattoo model who garnered plenty of online attention after his mugshot went viral in 2017. He earned the nickname Florida Joker due to his green hair and face tattoos.

The GTA 6 version, seen in a quick shot of news footage, is a bit different — purple hair instead of green, some different face tattoos — but the similarities are certainly hard to ignore, which Sullivan didn’t. He acknowledged the GTA 6 video in a TikTok posted last year, and then posted a follow-up demanding millions of dollars in compensation.

In that TikTok, Sullivan appeared with purple-dyed hair to ape the GTA 6 character more closely. “GTA, I’m giving you the biggest free marketing you got in the entire history of running this GTA game,” he said. “For that, I want an extra million dollars. Y’all taking forever to respond back to me. GTA we gotta talk.”

Then, Sullivan said: “You think I’m playin? You got three days… three days before my lawyers go crazy on this case. I got hard evidence.” IGN had asked Rockstar to comment on Sullivan’s claims, but didn’t hear back. In a previous TikTok, Sullivan demanded up to $2 million from Rockstar Games over the character’s appearance in the trailer. “Florida Joker ain’t having that,” he said, “y’all took my likeness, y’all took my life.”

Now, Sullivan has taken to TikTok once again, this time singing a different tune. “GTA, Rockstar, Take-Two, we gotta talk,” Sullivan said. “I’m not suing y’all no more, but y’all still out your goddamn nuggets. It’s been two whole months. Y’all still haven’t reached out to me. Still haven’t DM’d me. Let’s do what’s right. Show me like $50,000, $100,000. Let me voice the character, let me go to the meet-and-greets when the game is released, sign, take pictures with the fans. Come on man, we make worldwide news, every blog. Every news outlet covered me on the game. Everyone knows who I am, trust me. So GTA, Rockstar, we gotta talk.”

Sullivan then goes on to say perhaps the silliest thing he’s said throughout this entire saga: “I’m making the game more relevant. People want to play it. I’m the reason the game is so hype right now.”

Despite Sullivan’s various TikToks, it seems unlikely he will get anything out of Rockstar Games. Last year Roger Clark, the voice actor behind Red Dead Redemption 2 protagonist, Arthur Morgan, warned Sullivan from taking on the might of Rockstar. “They’re [Rockstar Games] not going to talk to you,” he said in a since-deleted TikTok.

“They’ve had people like you trying to sue them for decades. They are lawyered up, man. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with. If I were you, I would use the notoriety they just threw your way to your advantage. Capitalize on it somehow. You ain’t getting a job at Home Depot with that face.”

Sullivan’s TikToks are only the latest development in what’s been a whirlwind since the leak, and then the official launch, of the hotly anticipated GTA 6 trailer. It broke YouTube viewership records and spurred a number of theories as fans eagerly await the game’s 2025 release, although PC gamers will have to wait.

This week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said he expects a GTA 6 release sometime after March 2025. This is notably a little later than what some have been speculating based on past remarks by Take-Two Interactive, GTA 6’s publisher.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].