Theory: Trailer 1's face-tattooed mugshot is the "Florida Joker"

What the trailer showsUnconfirmed

Trailer 1 spends a stretch of its middle on Leonida's chaotic news cycle: social clips, police chases and local TV crime reports. At about 1:05, one report cuts to a booking photo of a man with purple hair, an orange jumpsuit and tattoos covering most of his face. It is on screen for a moment, one of several faces in the montage.

The "Florida Joker"Unconfirmed

Lawrence Sullivan, a Florida tattoo model, went viral in 2017 when his mugshot spread online after an arrest that Fox 35 Orlando describes as waving a gun in traffic. His face tattoos include the word "Joker" across his forehead, a Batman symbol and cuts drawn at the corners of his mouth. With his green hair, the internet named him after the DC villain.

Days after the trailer, Sullivan posted TikTok videos saying the character was based on him. "You know they got that character with the face tattoos, you know who they got that inspired by? By me," he said, and later demanded payment from Rockstar. "Y'all took my likeness. Y'all took my life," he told viewers, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

How it holds upUnconfirmed

The general idea is clear. Trailer 1 is built on "Florida Man" headlines, and outlets matched several clips to real stories, from the gator walking into a store to the man doing yard work in a thong. A face-tattooed mugshot in that montage was always going to be read as the Florida Joker.

The specifics are looser. The trailer character's hair is purple, not green, and the tattoo layout does not obviously match Sullivan's. Rockstar's habit is to caricature a type rather than copy a person, which also keeps it clear of likeness claims. Our read: the montage is plainly riffing on viral Florida mugshots, and Sullivan's is the most famous of them, but the character is a composite, not a portrait.

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