GTA 6 casting leak hints Rockstar’s latest could arrive sooner than expected

March was one big letdown for Grand Theft Auto fans longing for some kind of GTA 6 announcement following a cascade of alleged leaks, rumors, and even some clues from Rockstar Games itself. But not all hope is lost: An actor's resume, of all things, may have just confirmed that the game has already been in development for years.

A Twitter account dedicated to digging up hints about GTA 6 posted a screenshot of actor Jorge Consejo’s resume on March 27 which seemingly revealed that the actor that will play a feature character named “The Mexican” in "Grand Theft Auto VI." It also states he did CGI motion capture for the game back in 2018.

That same day, Consejo tweeted out a statement essentially confirming that he was involved with a top-secret Rockstar project. He told his followers that he was unable to comment on “certain projects” due to contractual obligations, which further fueled fans’ speculation.

"While I read every message from you, please know that because of contract stipulations sometimes I’m unable to comment on certain projects. Please don’t feel ignored or unseen. I appreciate and value every single one of you."

Inverse visited Consejo’s professional site where a PDF file of his resume is readily accessible to anyone, but the entry which mentioned GTA 6 was no longer included. However, the HTML elements of his site reveal that his CV page was last modified on March 31, which makes it seem like he edited the document to avoid attracting any more attention to what at this point seems like a genuine role in GTA 6.

The Inverse Analysis — So what does this all mean for GTA 6’s eventual release date? If Consejo was, in fact, shooting motion capture scenes with Rockstar in 2018, then GTA 6 might have been halfway through its development cycle back then.

According to games publication Gamasutra, principle mo-cap shooting occurs around the halfway point of development. Specifically, the article mentions that footage would be captured between months four and eight of a 14-month cycle, but that could vary for GTA 6.

The previous version of Consejo’s resume stated that he is a “featured” character in GTA 6, which means he isn’t one of the protagonists but is a significant part of the storyline. That suggests that Rockstar was gathering the resources to animate major plot scenes in 2018.

If that’s the case, then a 2020 release date window announcement seems possible. The game might end up launching a year or two later after that reveal, which was the case with GTA 5. Rockstar Games announced GTA 5 in October 2011 and released it about two years later, which could set precedent for the eventual release of GTA 6 this time around.

For all we know, a March announcement had been the plan before the novel coronavirus brought about a global pandemic, and the current situation could further delay Rockstar’s plans to announce the game this year. Naughty Dog announced Thursday that The Last of Us Part 2 would be delayed indefinitely due to concerns about a launch amidst the pandemic. Nintendo has similarly noted that COVID-19 could cause a slowdown in development as the company adjusts workflow to accommodate for social distancing mandates necessary to slow the spread of the disease.

At best, we could get a GTA 6 teaser by the end of 2020, perhaps around the time that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launch. An announcement in early 2021 might seem like the most realistic scenario, but because Rockstar has been so secretive about the game, we can't know for sure.