Trivia / Grand Theft Auto Online

• Banned in China: The Diamond Casino Resort is banned in several countries with the worst offenders being well known countries like Argentina, South Korea, North Korea, Ecuador, Cuba, Indonesia, Venezuela, Peru and Paraguay.
• The Other Darrin: Agent ULP, who was voiced by Milton James in Grand Theft Auto IV and the story mode of Grand Theft Auto V, is instead voiced by Jeff Steitzer when he reappeared in Online with him later succeeding him in the role due to Milton James suffering from a stroke and passing away in 2018 due to its complications.
• Reality Subtext: Ron mentioning that Trevor went "full Vinewood" and left him to become a lifestyle coach in the Smuggler's Run update likely alludes to the fact that Steven Ogg has since gone on to join the casts of several highly-acclaimed TV shows in Hollywood, such as Westworld, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead and Snowpiercer, no longer content with being Typecast as anyone even remotely resembling Trevor, who he once described as "a cartoon character". Furthermore, Trevor's criminal enterprises all being abandoned during the Los Santos Drug Wars update further reflects Ogg's Creator Backlash.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • Many of the DLC ideas that were originally planned for Grand Theft Auto V but were scrapped in favor of working with Online instead later made it into Online itself. The "Enterprise DLC" was refit into "The Business Update", "Agent Trevor" eventually became "The Doomsday Scenario Update", the "Alien Invasion DLC" eventually was scaled-down, and many of the vehicles for the "Next-Gen Zombies DLC" were later added into the "Arena Wars Update".
  • Lamar Davis was intended to become a playable character in V, which was based on an alternate version of Ending C that would've had Franklin perform a Heroic Sacrifice. In this game, the player briefly takes control of Lamar during one of the missions in "The Contract" update.
  • The Loch Santos Monster that can appear in the water at the end of the Cayo Perico heist and dive down with Pavel noting it's existence as well as the fact that it is an old friend of his is actually a reused prop model for the "River Monster" that was planned to appear in Red Dead Redemption 2 but was cut from the final game.
• Role Reprise:
  • David "D.B. Cooper" Kenner returns as "Gay Tony" Prince in the "After Hours" update in 2018, nine years after his last appearance in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony.
  • Richard Hsu returns as Tao Cheng in the Diamond Casino update in 2019.
  • Shawn Fonteno and Slink Johnson reprise their roles as Franklin Clinton and Lamar Davis in The Contract, released eight years after their original appearances in V.
  • Dr. Isiah Friedlander reappears in the Los Santos Drug Wars update, once again played by Bryan Scott Johnson.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Steven Ogg was not interested in returning as Trevor for the Los Santos Drug Wars update, which is why his criminal businesses and meth lab were left to be taken over by various gangs during the events of the DLC.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Heists update for the game which introduces Heists was originally intended to be included at launch, but design issues and shifting priorities delayed it for over a year.
  • Stretch was originally planned to be a phone contact for the GTA Online Player with him presumably still being in Bolingbrook Penitentiary as the game begins months before Grand Theft Auto V. However, it was later scrapped due to Rockstar not really finding a use for it in the game, as well as Stretch canonically being killed at the end of GTA V with Online eventually having events that happened afterwards.
  • The BAWSAQ stock market from V was originally going to be usable in Online as it was based on player activity and could originally be seen on the Rockstar Social Club to predict the stock. However, it was made unusable in Online due to Rockstar not wanting people to abuse the market for themselves, leading to the market on the Social Club also being removed by the release of the Enhanced versions of the game.
  • Unused text and dialog in the game files implies that The Diamond Casino Resort and Maze Bank were originally planned to be in the game from the start instead of releasing in future updates with Maze Bank being released as part of the "Arena Wars" update while The Diamond Casino Resort was released in the update with the same name.
  • Before "The Cayo Perico Heist update", Dr. Dre originally didn't want to appear in the game since, in his words, he didn't want to be involved with being in something "made for kids". However, DJ Pooh managed to change his mind after bringing his Playstation 4 and his copy of the game over and showed Dr Dre the actual game, leading to Dre becoming interested in it and eventually agreeing to be in the game.
  • As mentioned above, Trevor Phillips was supposed to play a major role in the Los Santos Drug Wars update, but Steven Ogg declined to reprise the role, due to his growing Artist Disillusionment regarding the GTA fanbase. This resulted in the creation of the Fooliganz Troupe to fill the void he left behind while Ron was still present in the update.