Red Dead Redemption 3 Should Return To Mexico (With Sadie Adler)

A sequel to Red Dead Redemption 2 feels inevitable, and one of the paths a potential Red Dead Redemption 3 could take would be to focus on Sadie Adler in Mexico as a bounty hunter. Sadie, who was portrayed by Alex McKenna in RDR2, proved to be a pivotal character and ally to both Arthur Morgan and John Marston. She ended the story as a bounty hunter, but resolves at the end of the game to head south into Latin America, a journey that could be great to see in a full-fledged Red Dead follow-up.

[Warning: major spoilers for Red Dead Redemption & RDR2 below.]

Following the collapse of the Van Der Linde gang in the final act of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s story, Sadie leaves the outlaw life behind and becomes a bounty hunter. As a bounty hunter, she and Charles Smith help John track down Micah Bell in a bid to avenge the death of Arthur. Sadie is wounded during this encounter, but John is able to kill Micah thanks to the intervention of Dutch. Sadie can then be seen in the closing moments of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s epilogue, attending John’s wedding with Abigail, before leaving the ranch. It’s unclear where exactly she goes, but given that she confided to John earlier in the epilogue that she wished to relocate to South America, it’s possible that what she did next.

Sadie Adler’s time in South America could’ve been the perfect setting for single-player Red Dead Redemption 2 DLC, but it could also form the basis of a compelling full-blown sequel. Sadie was a fan-favorite member of the Van Der Linde gang along with Charles, and would be a great candidate to be the first playable woman protagonist of a Rockstar title. Further still, Mexico was left tantalizingly off RDR2‘s map, with fans finding multiple glitches in a bid to head back to the setting that formed a key part of the first Red Dead Redemption. By heading further south, Rockstar could potentially mirror the approach it took with RDR2, utilizing a part of Mexico players are already familiar with, but with a new, expanded area closer to the country’s middle. This could leave the door open for Sadie to interact with Landon Ricketts after he first relocates to Mexico, in a story that would potentially boast few ties with the first two games.

Why It Makes Sense For Red Dead Redemption 3 To Be Set In Mexico

There has been some speculation that Red Dead Redemption 3 could be another prequel, and focus on the early days of the Van Der Linde gang with a young Dutch at the forefront. Although this is a great premise for another Red Dead title – especially since Rockstar is yet to depict the peak of the Old West in either game – it would arguably be bolder to go in the opposite direction, and continue telling Western stories in the early 20th century. A Western can still be a Western regardless of whether of when it takes place, with some of the best examples of storytelling in the genre being situated in the early 1900s or even later. George Roy Hill and William Goldman’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid portrayed the titular outlaws’ lives until their deaths in Bolivia in 1908 – a similar timeframe for the stories of Red Dead Redemption and RDR2 – and there’s plenty of scope for Westerns set years or even decades after that, with John Sturges’ post-war-set Bad Day at Black Rock one such example.

A Sadie Adler game obviously wouldn’t take place that far after the events of Red Dead Redemption, but it’s worth discussing to show just how much range Rockstar has to play with. Either way, the more likely timeframe for a Red Dead Redemption 3 led by Sadie Adler would either be just before the first RDR or slightly afterward. Rockstar could even integrate Jack Marston into the story, as he begins to question his life after tragically falling into the same cycle of vengeance as his father. Sadie could be the perfect mentor in that regard, as she was seemingly able to leave the emotional bloodshed behind in Red Dead Redemption 2‘s ending and epilogue.

Red Dead Redemption 3 Could Tell A Non-Outlaw Story With Sadie

Both of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption games have told stories from an outlaw perspective, with the first entry being about one pressed into the service of the government, and the latter of a group barely clinging to their way of life before they get steamrolled by civilization. Both stories are also about the death of the Old West – the transition of the United States from an endless frontier into an industrialized nation-state organized primarily by wealth and law. There’s a degree of poeticism to Rockstar’s Old West, but one that doesn’t mince its words when it comes to confronting the myths and legends of the era with cold hard reality. It’s still possible to tap into those themes from a non-outlaw perspective in a Red Dead Redemption 3 set after RDR2 however, and especially in a game that ventures south of the border.

It’s unclear what Sadie may have gotten up to following the events of Red Dead Redemption 2, but it’s possible that she continued her career as a bounty hunter. Her days with the Van Der Linde gang made her a skilled sharpshooter, and it’s made clear in RDR2‘s epilogue that she’s been bounty hunting for several years by the time John tracks her down. There wouldn’t be a shortage of bounties for Sadie to collect in Mexico or even further south, if that’s where she was eventually headed, and it’s even possible that Red Dead Redemption 3 could end up being a reverse Butch Cassidy situation, with Sadie tracking down U.S. outlaws who’ve fled the country. This could present new storytelling opportunities for Rockstar; Red Dead Redemption borrowed from Sam Peckinpah’s Anti-Westerns, and telling a story focused on Sadie as a bounty hunter could open up other filmic inspirations into the studio’s orbit – potentially to more Leone, or the aforementioned Sturges.

Mexico has played host to some incredible Westerns over the years, including Duck, You Sucker! and The Magnificent Seven, while other areas of Central and Latin America have also served as backdrops. It may make for a nice change of pace for Red Dead Redemption 3 to leave the southern United States behind and go to a different continent, and doing so with Sadie would be a great way of maintaining a familiar face from Red Dead Redemption 2. She could become a legend of the Old West herself, and perhaps even save Jack Marston from following too much in his father’s footsteps, if it were set after the first game.

About The Author

Ewan Paterson
(75 Articles Published)

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Ewan is a Gaming Features Editor for Screen Rant and may in fact have way too many interests. His love for comic books, video games and Dad Movies also instilled in him a love for writing, which he’s been doing since he was about 16. Originally from Liverpool, Ewan made the move to Newcastle in 2014 to study History at Northumbria University (which he loved), and has stayed there ever since. You may have heard/seen him on YouTube a bunch as well.

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