Red Dead Redemption 3 Can Leave The Old West (And Still Be A Western)
Although the Red Dead Redemption series is thoroughly comprised of two Westerns, a third game could conceivably take place after the time period known as the Old West, without compromising the themes demarcated by its predecessors. Many would argue that Red Dead Redemption 3 should be another prequel, and while that certainly makes the most sense when considering the series' current trajectory, many of its core ideas can be extrapolated to time periods following the lawlessness of American westward expansion. Although the series thus far has taken place at the tail end of where traditional Westerns are set, there is plenty of room in the 20th century for more modern, quasi-Western stories.
The end of RDR coincides with the end of the Old West. If the real course of history is to be taken into account, the frontier was declared closed by the United States Census Bureau in 1890, meaning the Wild West had - in the eyes of the federal government - been settled. John Marston's death occurs 21 years later in 1911, and when he's avenged by his son in 1914, the world is on the verge of the First World War. The Old West symbolically dies alongside the final members of the Van der Linde Gang, but the Western genre itself has enough leeway to allow a RDR3 to take place beyond its predecessors' settings.
Rockstar's Western epics began with the oft-forgotten Red Dead Revolver, and while both Redemption games mention Red Dead Revolver characters, the two sub-series have completely isolated narratives. Following Red Dead Redemption's epilogue, one of the only conceivable ways forward in a third game following the fall of the Old West is to have a story centered on either Jack Marston or Sadie Adler. Both potential protagonists have a glaring issue: the Redemption duology is the story of the Van der Linde Gang, which has long been disbanded (and more recently hunted to death) by 1914. Sadie also mentions to John in RDR2's epilogue a desire to live in South America, which would certainly be an interesting setting for a new Red Dead, but would likely lack some of the overarching themes of the Redemption games.
A Red Dead Redemption 3 could tell Sadie Adler's story, but Jack Marston might be a better fit if the series wants to explore the aftermath of the American Wild West. Marston's experiences with the federal government would likely lead him to dodging the World War I draft registration, and his personal disdain for the Bureau of Investigation gives Rockstar a convenient avenue to explore the bootleggers of the Prohibition era. The Roaring '20s sees a rise in organized crime in the United States, particularly in regards to the illegal distillation and sale of alcohol. Jack Marston is the son of fugitives, thrust into a nation disillusioned by the industrialized violence of World War I. A continued feud with the BOI could be a through line as Marston tries to make a name for himself in the criminal underworlds of burgeoning Midwest cities.
The Old West is heavily romanticized throughout the Western genre, and in a third RDR, Marston could grapple with the feelings of being a man removed from the proper time period, whose father was killed by the very authority figures now enforcing Prohibition. This also presents the opportunity for the BOI to remain the series' overarching villain as it transforms into the FBI, known as the Federal Investigation Bureau in GTA, where it later becomes a target in one of Grand Theft Auto V's heists. Though the Van der Linde Gang is gone, there's plenty of room for Jack to inherit his father's life of crime, and might even provide some gameplay variety. New weapons are a given, and automobiles provide new transportation options. Bootlegging could evolve into bank robbing as the player encounters characters inspired by the likes of John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. It's a big departure from the traditional Western setting of RDR and its sequel, but could show the evolution of the American outlaw and the continued rise of federal crime fighting.
Even though Red Dead Redemption depicts the pacification of the Wild West, plenty of Westerns have a modern setting. The 2016 film Hell or High Water is a great, recent example of a Western taking place in the modern day, but RDR3 wouldn't have to enter the 21st century. Though Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses doesn't have all of the anti-Western themes of Red Dead Redemption, it is a quintessential story about a longing for a bygone, Western way of life. When the novel begins in 1949, protagonist John Grady Cole learns that his late grandfather's Texas ranch is going to be sold, and rather than move into town, he decides to pursue the life of a cowboy in Mexico. Even in the mid-20th century, John Grady finds a frontier far less pacified than that in the United States. The first Red Dead Redemption's stint south of the border leaves plenty of narrative opportunity for Jack Marston to seek a new sort of Old West.
Jack Marston is one of Rockstar's saddest characters, and there's something poignantly fitting about him wandering a foreign land trying to find a place where he belongs. The era of the Old West is thoroughly over by the time Jack kills Edgar Ross in RDR's epilogue, but that doesn't mean there aren't other frontiers that can be made substitute. Even though Red Dead Redemption has left the United States before - Mexico in the first, and Guarma in the second - a game that actively moves the protagonist out of the country would be new territory for Rockstar. The developer's particular brand of satire relies heavily on parroting American culture, and while that's more important for Grand Theft Auto, moving to a setting primarily outside of the United States might be difficult for Red Dead as well. At the end of Red Dead Redemption, Jack Marston is only 19, and though there's no guarantee he will be the protagonist of a third game, his character shows that there are multiple avenues where the series could expand beyond the Old West while still maintaining its Western status.