Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser Picks Arthur Morgan as His Best Lead, But It’s a Toss-Up With GTA 4’s Niko Bellic

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser just did a rare, candid chat on Lex Fridman’s podcast, and he went deep on the question fans love to argue about: who is his best character. He lands on Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2… with an asterisk. Along the way he drops some very useful behind-the-scenes nuggets about GTA 4’s ending and that never-released Trevor DLC for GTA 5.

Arthur vs. Niko: the top spot

I think he is the best lead character.

Houser makes a point to separate lead characters from the colorful supporting players. Judged as a lead, he says Arthur Morgan is the most fully formed and the one that just works in every direction. He also talks around a couple of spoiler-heavy moments from Red Dead 2 (if you know, you know), and says playing with how Arthur’s story lands — including the ending — was surprisingly fun to design.

But it is not a runaway. GTA 4’s Niko Bellic is right there in the conversation for Houser. He calls Arthur and Niko his two most ambitious protagonists, and admits it is basically a toss-up between them depending on the day.

Why Arthur feels so three-dimensional

Credit where it is due: Houser says the art team pushed the idea of Arthur’s in-game journal, and that single choice helped lock the character in. The way Red Dead 2’s systems and features feed back into Arthur’s personality — from the notes he scribbles to the messy, very human dynamic with his former girlfriend — made him feel like a person instead of a quest machine. A lot of small touches piled up around Arthur, and the character got richer as a result.

The Niko ending Houser could not ship

Here is a twist: Houser actually wanted to kill Niko at the end of GTA 4. The team did not do it for one very practical reason — players need the protagonist alive to roam the world after the credits. That post-game free-roam requirement boxed them in, so Niko lived. It is a tidy example of a technical/design constraint steering a story choice, not the other way around.

The Trevor DLC that almost happened

Houser also confirms the long-rumored Trevor expansion for GTA 5 was real and got roughly halfway through development before the team pulled the plug. Why walk away that late? Resources. He says that if they had finished and shipped the add-on, Rockstar probably would not have been able to make Red Dead 2 when they did. Tough call, but the math speaks for itself.

• Best character? Houser says Arthur Morgan is his top lead, with Niko Bellic neck-and-neck.
• Arthur works because everything — especially that journal — feeds back into who he is.
• Niko almost died at the end of GTA 4, but post-credits gameplay kept him alive.
• GTA 5’s Trevor DLC was about halfway done before getting scrapped so the team could prioritize Red Dead 2.

For a guy whose credits include GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA 4, GTA 5, and Red Dead 2, that is a pretty telling peek at how Rockstar balances character work with the realities of open-world game design. And yeah, calling Arthur the best lead is hard to argue with.