Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer thrills fans with new ‘badass’ female lead
Fans have been officially introduced to female lead Lucia for the first time (Rockstar/YouTube)
After a decade-long wait, the first trailer for Rockstar’s highly anticipated GTA 6 is here, and it officially introduces gamers to a female protagonist.
The first trailer for the game was supposed to go live on YouTube at 9am Eastern Standard Time (2pm in the UK), but a low-quality leak forced Rockstar’s hand and the developer dropped the video 15 hours early.
Rockstar has been tight-lipped about Grand Theft Auto 6 – due for release in 2025 – with very little being said about the game’s development in the years following the smash-hit success of its immediate predecessor, 2013’s GTA V.
A huge data hack in September 2022 resulted in 90 videos showing 50 minutes of work-in-progress game footage leak from Rockstar’s internal channels, giving gamers a detailed look at what the developer had been working on.
The 90-second trailer confirms much of what was revealed by the leaks: GTA 6 will be set in Vice City, Rockstar’s fictitious version of Miami, and will have a female counterpart, Lucia, alongside a male player, Jason. It is believed they will be a Bonnie-and-Clyde style pairing.
Set to “Love is a Long Road”, by Tom Petty, the trailer gives a colourful look of Vice City as well as the wider wildlife and sprawling environment of the state of Leonida, which is based on Florida.
Characters are seen partying on boats, in clubs and on rooftops, an alligator is pulled from someone’s pool, and the city’s beach is filled with tan and toned bodies. But, in usual GTA fashion, there are also police raids, drag races and armed robberies.
“Lucia, do you know why you are here?” the protagonist is asked.
“Bad luck, I guess,” she replies.
Fans were quick to share their thoughts on Lucia – the long-rumoured Latina, female lead – and on the whole, the response has been positive.
“Lucia already carrying GTA 6,” one fan wrote on X/Twitter.
Another said: “She is hot and looks like a badass.”
Sharing screenshots of the character, a third gushed: “I’m so excited to finally have a female protagonist in GTA 6,”agreeing that “Lucia’s a badass”.
Another won-over fan wrote: “I wasn’t even remotely interested in GTA 6 but Lucia changed my mind.”
And someone else jokingly wrote: “Jason better treat Lucia right before I get his ass killed in my GTA 6 play-through.”
One fan even made use of a Brooklyn Nine-Nine meme to convey her appreciation of Lucia.
While fans have welcomed GTA 6’s addition of a playable female character for the first time since 1997’s original GTA game, the franchise’s LGBTQ+ representation has historically been poor or downright offensive – something queer fans will hope to see change in the upcoming instalement.
