Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel, set more than a decade before the events of the previous game.
That means you’ll be meeting younger versions of
multiple characters from the original Red Dead Redemption.
Of course, it’s been over eight years, so no one can blame you for forgetting a few key things.
Here’s a primer on everyone who, as far as we know,
appears in Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Dutch van der Linde is leader of the Van der Linde Gang, a nomadic commune full of misfits,
rejects, and anyone else who didn’t fit into the quickly modernizing society.
As you might guess by the name of his gang, van der Linde is a bit of an egomaniac.
In the first Red Dead Redemption, he leads a new group simply called Dutch’s Gang -- mostly
made up of Native American followers who justifiably
share his distrust of the American government.
After being hunted down by John Marston, he chooses to end his own life.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, we see a younger Dutch — still charismatic and idealistic,
but not as unhinged as he will be a dozen years down the line.
As his gang is chased down by the government, we’ll probably witness Dutch’s transformation
from an optimistic outlaw to the nihilistic cult leader we saw in Red Dead Redemption.
John Marston is back!
The protagonist of the first game, John is a (relatively) honorable cowboy with a bunch
of deep scars across his face and a penchant for getting fucked up real badly.
He gets injured in the heist that kicks off Red Dead Redemption 2.
He also gets shot and left for dead by his gang in 1906.
He lives peacefully as a reformed man for the next five years, until the Bureau of Investigation
abducts his wife and son.
The feds send him off to kill his former gang buddy Bill Williamson, who also shoots him.
By the end of 1911, John has hunted down and killed most of his former gang.
He tries to be a good dad, but then he gets shot, and this time he gets shot so many times
nobody can ever shoot him again.
Edgar Ross is the man responsible for that final shooting.
He isn’t just the primary antagonist of Red Dead Redemption — he’s the antithesis
of John Marston’s character.
As a high ranking member of the Bureau of Investigation, Ross’s actions are backed
by the full force of the US government, but he’s unscrupulous, amoral, and frankly,
a huge piece of shit. Edgar extorts and threatens John over the
course of the game, and gets away scot free.
Or at least it looks that way, until John’s own son Jack takes him out of retirement
for one last shootout.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, we get a glimpse of young Edgar, apparently working as the
lieutenant of another government man.
It’s possible we’ll learn what the Van Der Linde gang did to deserve his wrath.
Or maybe he’s just always been a bastard.
Let’s go back to Jack Marson for a second.
John’s teenage son spends most of Red Dead Redemption as an off-screen hostage.
He’s awkward, bookish, and doesn’t seem cut out for his father’s rugged lifestyle—
but after his daddy gets shot 100 times too many, he decides to pick up the iron after all.
For now, we know that Jack grew up with the Van der Linde gang, and in Red Dead Redemption 2
we see him as a little baby boy.
Jack’s mother Abigail is a no-nonsense lady who also lived a tough with the Van Der Linde gang.
Like Jack, she spends most of the first game in captivity.
But when she’s finally reunited with John, we learn she’s self-possessed, funny, and
has a remarkable patience for men who love to get shot.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, it looks like she’ll be hanging around with the Gang, so we might
get to know her better.
Uncle is an alcoholic and layabout, but loyal in times of need.
When the feds kidnap Abigail and Jack, John puts Uncle in charge of the family ranch.
He returns to find the ranch in disrepair; to be fair, this what you should expect when
you leave the well-being of an entire ranching operation in the greasy hands of one dirty
old beardo.
But when the army storms the ranch, Uncle does his damndest to defend the place before
being killed in the battle.
A younger, probably just as useless Uncle appears in Red Dead 2.
Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella were the chief McGuffins of Red Dead Redemption.
Both of them began their careers in the Van der Linde gang.
While John went straight, they went further into outlaw life, building criminal strongholds
and colluding with shady governments.
They’re also both cowards who hide behind false bravado.
They both meet their ends in Mexico at the hands of Marston and a Mexican rebel leader.
As with any prequel, we already know where these characters are going to end up.
But the promise of the new game is that we’ll be able to see how they got to where they
were in Red Dead Redemption.
That game featured very few actual in-person interactions between John Marston and his
ex-comrades, but what little dialogue we did get suggested that the dissolution of the
Van der Linde gang was rife with tension and betrayal.
And I, for one, am excited to get caught up on all the drama.