Canceled, Half-Done GTA 5 Trevor DLC Might Have Cost Us Red Dead 2, Says Dan Houser

Remember that long-rumored Grand Theft Auto 5 single-player DLC everyone swore existed? It did. And according to Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser, it got surprisingly far before the plug got pulled.

What Rockstar Actually Built (And Then Shelved)

On Lex Fridman's show, Houser confirmed the DLC you heard whispers about — the one with Trevor playing secret agent — was real and in active development. His summary is blunt:

"It was cute, it never quite came together, and it was never finished... about half-done when it was abandoned."

If you were holding out hope that it was all smoke and message-board fanfic, well, it wasn't. But it also didn't reach the finish line.

Why Kill It?

This is the part that might sting less if you loved Red Dead Redemption 2. Houser says releasing the GTA 5 DLC could have cost Rockstar that sequel:

"I think if that had come out, [we] probably wouldn't have gotten to make Red Dead 2."

Translation: resources are finite, and the studio chose one giant project over the other. You can argue with the decision, but you can also see why they made it.

How We Got Here

GTA 5 launched in 2013, and based on Rockstar's track record, single-player add-ons felt inevitable. Instead, the last decade turned into GTA Online season after season, while GTA 6 is now only months away. If you're wondering why fans expected DLC in the first place, here's the quick history:

• GTA 4 got two meaty single-player expansions: The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
• Red Dead Redemption went wild with Undead Nightmare after launch.
• GTA 5, despite being Rockstar's biggest hit, never got a single-player expansion — just years of GTA Online updates instead.

Houser Still Loves The Old Model

Even though GTA 5 never got its story add-on, Houser made it clear he's a fan of that approach — telling new, self-contained stories after launch, like those GTA 4 episodes and Red Dead Redemption's zombie detour. He straight-up says he likes making stories and would have personally liked to do more of those add-on packs at Rockstar. So the appetite was there; the timing and priorities weren't.

One More Tidbit From The Vault

Houser also touched a nerve from an earlier era: why GTA 4's Niko Bellic lives while Red Dead Redemption's John Marston doesn't. His logic for Niko was that players needed to be able "to play forever" — so killing him wasn't on the table. John, on the other hand, did not get that protection, as anyone who finished Red Dead Redemption can attest.

The Bottom Line

The Trevor-as-a-spy DLC was real, it reached roughly halfway, and it died so Rockstar could focus on bigger prey — most notably Red Dead Redemption 2. If you loved those old-school narrative expansions, you're not alone. Houser did too. We just didn't get one for GTA 5, and at this point, with GTA 6 looming, that ship has fully sailed.