Lawrence Sullivan — aka the Florida Joker — has escalated his complaint about the GTA 6 trailer by threatening a lawsuit against developer Rockstar Games unless he is paid.
GTA 6 takes place in the state of Leonida, Rockstar’s version of Florida, and following the release of the record-breaking debut trailer fans noticed several real-life references. Among them was what appeared to be a reference to Sullivan, a tattoo model who garnered plenty of online attention after his mugshot went viral in 2017. He earned the nickname Florida Joker due to his green hair and face tattoos.
The GTA 6 version, seen in a quick shot of news footage, is a bit different — purple hair instead of green, some different face tattoos — but the similarities are certainly hard to ignore, which Sullivan didn’t. He acknowledged the GTA 6 video in a TikTok posted last week, and has now posted a follow-up demanding millions of dollars in compensation.
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In his latest TikTok, Sullivan appears with purple-dyed hair to ape the GTA 6 character more closely. “GTA, I’m giving you the biggest free marketing you got in the entire history of running this GTA game,” he said. “For that, I want an extra million dollars. Y’all taking forever to respond back to me. GTA we gotta talk.”
Then, an increasingly animated Sullivan says: “You think I’m playin? You got three days… three days before my lawyers go crazy on this case. I got hard evidence.” IGN has asked Rockstar to comment on Sullivan’s claims. In a previous TikTok, Sullivan demanded up to $2 million from Rockstar Games over the character’s appearance in the trailer. “Florida Joker ain’t having that,” he said, “y’all took my likeness, y’all took my life.”
Despite Sullivan’s claims on TikTok, it seems unlikely he will get much out of Rockstar Games. Perhaps most famously, Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit in 2013 against Take-Two for what she claimed was unauthorized use of her likeness for a minor character in GTA 5. The suit, however, was eventually dismissed. For his part, Sullivan claims his case is significantly different than Lohan’s.
One high-profile sceptic is Roger Clark, the voice actor behind Red Dead Redemption 2 protagonist, Arthur Morgan. “They’re [Rockstar Games] not going to talk to you,” he said in a now-deleted TikTok (spotted by PC Gamer).
“They’ve had people like you trying to sue them for decades. They are lawyered up, man. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with. If I were you, I would use the notoriety they just threw your way to your advantage. Capitalize on it somehow. You ain’t getting a job at Home Depot with that face.”
Sullivan’s TikToks are only the latest development in what’s been a whirlwind since the leak, and then the official launch, of the wildly anticipated GTA 6 trailer. It’s broken YouTube viewership records and spurred a number of fan theories as fans eagerly await the game’s 2025 release, although PC gamers will have to wait.
Image credit: Lawrence Sullivan / TikTok
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
