Ever heard of the boy that cried wolf? One of these days Shawn Fonteno (Franklin's voice actor) is going to leak a hint about upcoming GTA V content that's actually legit and no one is going to believe him.
This is not that day, however, as his most recent attempt to take the GTA V fandom on a ride has people hoping so much for it to be true that they forgot about all the other times he pulled something like this.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Shawn Fonteno shared an image on his Instagram account which in some way may allude to potential single player DLC being in development for GTA V accompanied by a vague caption.
As exciting as all this may sound because as a voice actor he must be a legit source, unfortunately every time he pulled something like this it was debunked — once by his fellow voice actor, in fact. So what makes this instance special and newsworthy?
This time around, the image shared is a collage of his GTA V character, Franklin; The protagonist of San Andreas, CJ; and a photograph with him and CJ's voice actor, Christopher "Mayleeno" Bellard. Additionally, the image wasn't shared by Fonteno, but by Bellard.
Knowing the GTA community, you can guess that this is more than enough to send everyone off into a rumor frenzy. But wait! There's more! The biggest rumor bomb was dropped in the caption with accompanied the image.
- CJ #Franklin #GTA #DLC? Shh!
Just in case that was a tad too direct, Bellard later edited the "DLC" tag out of the caption. However, the damage, so to say, was done. The rumors were in the air, everyone is now railing on about how CJ will be part of the next GTA V DLC. The usual suspects when it comes to hack journalism have milked the topic almost dry.
This particular troll (or legit leak) is a more nuanced and interesting one than the others. Before now all we got was a picture of Fonteno wearing a mo-cap suit from the time GTA V was under development and a promo image from the PC release dressed up to look like Liberty City.
However this is special. The picture of Fonteno and Maylay is one not before seen, and it must be noted that their characters might share family ties. If you have played GTA San Andreas, you may remember that CJ had a girlfriend called Denise.
According to some fan theories, that same Denise happens to be Franklin's aunt. This connection could easily be expanded upon for story purposes.
Beyond the rather obvious connection of San Andreas and V having the same setting, this would lead to some interesting story developments. The fact that the multiple endings of GTA V's story would restrict any continuation to Franklin unless Rockstar decides to canonize one particular ending also adds to the credibility of this leak.
Some outlets have somehow theorized that the connection will be based on CJ being Franklin's father. This is rather far fetched, as there isn't any hint or allusion to this anywhere in GTA V, however many fans have jumped on the bandwagon.
With Take-Two's recent statement regarding the publisher's major presence at this year's E3, rumors and hopes for upcoming single player DLC rose once again after its recent and seemingly final demise. Take-Two's financial reports showed that GTA Online and its microtransactions were pulling in the most cash, so it is easy to assume that the company would focus on the multiplayer aspect.
Are you putting any faith in this new GTA V singleplayer DLC "leak"?
