Could Tommy Vercetti return in GTA 6? Ruby on an old kingpin at about 75, who else could come back, and a fan-made son

Here is my thesis, and I will defend it: so far, the only part of Tommy Vercetti that Rockstar has put into GTA 6 is his shirt.

Everything factual below comes from Rockstar's own announcements or from sources I name. Where I am guessing, which is a lot of this, I say so. This is an opinion piece with a fan-fiction section at the end, so read the guesses as guesses, and the last section as a bit of fun.

What Rockstar has actually said

Confirmed. Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos are the leads, and as far as Rockstar's announcements go, no character from an earlier game has been named as returning. Our Vice City 2002 vs 2026 piece covers the city. This one is about the people.

What is on the record is smaller than a character. Every pre-order comes with the Vintage Vice City Pack, and it includes a tropical palm-tree pattern for most guns. Kotaku and Gfinity both describe it as a nod to Tommy's palm-tree shirt.

Reported, not yet checked by us. Fan sites quote the Ultimate Edition's weapon text as saying the Hawk & Little Morgan revolvers are "sourced from the Vercetti Estate" and turn up at Ammu-Nation as the story goes on. GTA Intel, linked below, is one of them. We have not checked the wording against Rockstar's own page yet, so treat it as reported.

So far that is a shirt, a possible estate and two revolvers. Not one person.

Old Tommy, with the maths

The fun idea is an old Tommy, maybe in his 80s. Let us do the sums.

Confirmed, from the games, via Grand Theft Wiki. Tommy is 35 in Vice City, which is set in 1986. That puts his birth around 1951; the official strategy guide says 1950 or 1951. He went to prison in 1971 and served 15 years. Run that forward and he is about 75 today, and he reaches 80 around 2030 or 2031. So an old Tommy in GTA 6's present would be in his mid-70s, not his 80s. Still a fine age for a man who has never once looked relaxed.

Two things stand in the way of a cameo, and I know of nothing Rockstar has said about either.

The voice. Ray Liotta, who played Tommy, died in May 2022 at 67. Any new Tommy would need another actor.

The universe. Fans sort Rockstar's games into a 3D Universe (GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas) and an HD Universe (GTA IV onwards). GTA 6 sits in the second, and its Vice City is rebuilt from scratch. Rockstar publishes no canon chart, so that is the fans' filing system, not the company's. It is why most people read any Vice City face as a nod, not a return.

My read. An old Tommy is unlikely. If Rockstar wants to say hello to him, I think it does it the way it already has: with the shirt on somebody else.

Who else could turn up

Ken Rosenberg. The panicking lawyer from Vice City, voiced by William Fichtner. By San Andreas in 1992 he had been disbarred and was running the Caligula's Palace casino. My read: he is the easiest to drop in anywhere. A nervous man in an expensive suit works in every decade. I would not bet money on it.

Lance Vance. Voiced by Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice. He betrays Tommy and dies at the end of Vice City, so he is the one name I can rule out.

What has returned. Places and a radio station. Ocean Beach is named in both games, and Flash FM is one of the six stations Rockstar previewed on October 8. More in our radio stations and album guide.

For fun: the Vercetti heir

The picture at the top is fan-made. It is not from Rockstar, it is not an official screenshot, and I know of no Rockstar material that shows a Vercetti son or a Vercetti campaign. Our Fan Vault ranking already has a fan film where Tommy runs for governor, so a Vercetti campaign poster is a small fandom tradition.

Our guess, and a silly one. Tommy walked out of prison in 1986. A son born in the years after would be about 35 to 40 now, which is roughly the age of the man in the picture.

Now read it as a stylist, because that is the job. Open collar, teal palm-print shirt, a thin gold chain, a little grey in the hair. Behind him, the billboard shows a painted portrait of a younger man in the same kind of shirt. The shirt is doing all the work. It is the family crest, and nobody needs a surname when the shirt already says Vice City. That is how I would write a Vercetti son if Rockstar ever asked: no speeches about his father, just the shirt, worn a little better.

The verdict

My read, all of it a guess. The real Tommy, back in a new game: unlikely. A Vercetti-flavoured nod: already happening, with the pattern and possibly the estate. A son: fan fiction, and the best-dressed fan fiction of the week.

On November 19, watch for the revolvers at Ammu-Nation, Ken in a good suit, and anyone in a teal palm print. If you spot the third, look at who is wearing it before you look at the name. More of me reading people by their clothes: Men of Leonida, read by their clothes.