5 beta characters that never saw the light of day in a GTA game

Some GTA characters have the unfortunate fate of never making it past beta.

This is something that happens in most video games. A game's development can shift from one idea to another, and in turn, a character can get scrapped from the final version.

Given how massive the GTA franchise is, it's not surprising that there would be a good number of beta characters who never saw the light of day.

This list will only include characters that are confirmed to have been cut in some way. A character that was scrubbed early on that's not documented anywhere won't be eligible for this kind of list. That said, there are still plenty of leftover beta characters in the GTA game files.

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Five beta characters that were cut from the final version of their respective GTA games

5) Mr. Mawson (GTA Advance)

Mr. Mawson, as he would've appeared in GTA Advance (Image via Rockstar Games)

This beta character was supposed to be a crossdresser who was strongly associated with Joey Leone. After Joey Leone was cut from GTA Advance, it was only fitting that his mysterious friend would also get axed.

Mr. Mawson was scheduled to appear in five missions, one of which had a failed text of "YOU JUST PUT MR MAVSON IN A BODY BAG.. MISSION FAILED!" The noticeable part about this line of text is that his name was misspelled, which would suggest that Mr. Mawson wasn't a priority for GTA Advance.

4) Jackie (GTA 5)

Surprisingly, Jackie does show up in GTA Online. However, her original role was tied to the cut heist known as the Sharmoota Job, in which Michael and Trevor were supposed to kidnap Patricia Madrazo.

Jackie is a real estate agent who would've met the two protagonists, and it would've been funny seeing Trevor act as Michael's "wife." Her role in GTA Online is far more minor by comparison, but she's still a close friend of Patricia Madrazo.

3) Mr. Moffat (GTA Vice City)

"MONEY. Money is the goddamn point, I've escaped the coop again, but its never long before they track me down - they think it's a damned game! I'm at a pay phone somewhere in this god forsaken shit hole. Get me out of here before they take me back and..and..oh go-o-od..."

Mr. Moffat is a beta character that was cut early on in GTA Vice City's development. He would've appeared in a mission known as "Hello Moffat," in which he would ask Tommy Vercetti to come and pick him up.

Tommy is familiar with Mr. Moffat and there is a short exchange between them in the game's script, but nothing else remains of the character or the mission's objective.

The YouTube video above sheds some light on Mr. Moffat and his role, but it's not definitive proof like some other beta characters have.

2) Officer Carver (GTA San Andreas)

GTA San Andreas has a good amount of unused models and characters. While Officer Carver's model is unknown (although many fans believe him to be Pulaski's beta model), he did have a role in the original Doberman mission.

GTA San Andreas players can listen to the video above, and see that Frank Tenpenny was arguing with a person named Officer Carver about another beta character, Poncho.

Poncho was a drug dealer who had ties to Tenpenny, so it would appear as though Officer Carver was a more just cop than Tenpenny was.

1) Darkel (GTA 3)

Darkel's model (Image via GTA Packs)

"He started with 5 missions and they were slowly all cut. When only one or 2 were left, they were all removed as the character just didn’t work alongside the other characters."

Darkel was a crazy vagrant who was cut from GTA 3 simply because his missions no longer fit in with the direction Rockstar was going with in the game. The only confirmed mission was I Scream, You Scream, which was given to El Burro in the final version of GTA 3.

Bill Fiore voiced Darkel and is even credited in the games' manual credits. There are some hobo NPCs with Molotov Cocktails in one area of GTA 3, which is commonly thought to be a location associated with Darkel.

Note: This article reflects the writer's personal views.