Red Dead Redemption II takes place smack dab in the middle of the Red Dead series. It revolves around the 1906 robbery that set everything into motion. The first game, Red Dead Revolver, took place in the 1880s, but except for bounty hunting and revenge, Rockstar didn’t take much from the first game when they took over the series. Red Dead Redemption was a separate story taking place in 1911. That means that the events of the newest game happen a solid five years before Red Dead Redemption, and it also means that Red Dead Redemption finished the saga that Red Dead Redemption II is going to tell. So far, Rockstar hasn’t released many details about the game.

Their recent press release had this to say:

WARNING: Spoilers ahead (kind of).

The plot for the new game sounds pretty straight-forward. Arthur Morgan is the right-hand of Dutch Van der Linde, the leader of the notorious Van der Linde gang. However, Morgan questions his loyalty once things start to go south, presumably when Dutch abandons one of his men, John Marston. We’ve seen in the trailer that John Marston, the protagonist from Red Dead Redemption, is present sporting his famous scars as stiches. We also see him captured and held at knife point. Based on Rockstar’s statement, this is the event that causes Dutch to abandon Marston and flee, which all sets into motion the story of Red Dead Redemption.

Judging by the trailer, players might have a chance to interact with Marston a bit before the catastrophic capture and escape. This game seems cemented at the time before the gang fell apart but leading into how so many important members would eventually split up. For anyone that hasn’t played Red Dead Redemption, any ideas that Arthur Morgan would turn on his old gang and kill them can be thrown out the window. Mostly because John Marston will kill most of the gang five years later in the events of Red Dead Redemption.

The first Red Dead Redemption centers on John Marston, the man with the stitched face at 1:38 in the trailer. The game focuses on his quest to kill members of his old gang at the request of the government. We know that Arthur Morgan is surprisingly absent from that hit list, which means he either retreated into a quiet life, or he dies before Marston can go on his quest.

We also know from dialogue in the first game that Marston was “left to die” by Dutch, which, looking at the trailer, seems like it might be the exact scene being shown and the event that causes the gang to fall apart. There are also some interesting tidbits that may come up in the second game. For instance, we know that Marston married a prostitute named Abigail, one who supposedly “serviced the whole gang”. Marston’s saintliness is mocked in the first game because he fell in love with a whore. Since Abigail and Marston’s son are alive and well during the timeline of Red Dead Redemption II, it’s possible that Abigail may make a showing in the new game. We may also see her flight from the gang with Marston’s young son.

We also see a few other familiar faces in the trailer, like one character that is probably a younger version of Uncle. In Red Dead Redemption, Uncle is a drunkard and constant pain to Marston, but they are allies to the very end. If Uncle does appear in Red Dead Redemption II, he will almost certainly fracture from the gang to go and help Marston after he is left behind. It’s also likely Edgar Ross, the lawmen that eventually betrays and gets Marston killed in Red Dead Redemption, will be putting in an early appearance as a sidekick to the villain hunting Arthur Morgan.

Two characters that Marston hunts down and kills, Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella, are also prominent in several scenes from the trailer. We know from the first game that Williamson will later go on to form his own gang and decry the name of Dutch. When Marston confronts Escuella, he will remind Marston of the brotherhood of the gang. This is something said to be a heavy focus of the new game as well. Marston tells Escuella that everything changed when “you and Dutch went crazy.” For now, we don’t know just what Dutch and Escuella did, but it’s a hint of what is to come for Arthur Morgan and what kind of madness will lead Dutch to going from a figure with morals and beliefs to one of violence.

Lastly, and perhaps most disappointingly, we know that Morgan won’t be the one that kills Dutch. Dutch will reform his gang after it becomes fractured and continue in his ways for years after the events of Red Dead Redemption II. When Marston finally confronts Dutch, not many details surface from the past. Dutch will reveal that monsters like himself will always exist, and if they don’t, the government will create them. Following a statement that men can’t change their nature, he commits suicide.

With all this in mind, Arthur Morgan’s journey will probably be less of a murderous one against his own allies. Too many members of the Van der Linde gang live on into Red Dead Redemption for Arthur Morgan to have had a huge shootout with them. Instead, the game will probably pit Morgan against bounty hunters, outlaws, and lawmen. The focus of the story has also been shown to be on what happens to the crumbling Van der Linde gang. While we know the gang will fall almost completely apart, we don’t know Morgan’s fate or how he will fit into the larger narrative. We do know the end of Morgan’s story will have to distance him far from Marston though, otherwise we would have heard or seen him in the original game.

We’ll get a chance to know more when Red Dead Redemption II releases on October 26, 2018.