Trevor Philips

Trevor Philips is one of three playable protagonists in Grand Theft Auto V (September 2013), voiced by Steven Ogg, and the most committed embrace of antihero protagonism in any Rockstar game. He is volatile, brilliant, and physically present in a way the franchise had not previously attempted.

Background

Trevor is a Canadian-American career criminal in his mid-forties. Before the events of GTA V, he served as a pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces, was discharged on mental-health grounds, and migrated south to the Midwest US. By 2004, Trevor was running scores with Michael Townley (later Michael De Santa) and Brad Snider out of Ludendorff, North Dakota. The opening prologue of GTA V depicts the botched Ludendorff job that ends with Brad apparently dead, Michael apparently dead, and Trevor scattered.

Nine years later, Trevor is operating a meth-and-gun-running business out of Sandy Shores in Blaine County, San Andreas. He discovers Michael is alive when news of a Vinewood jewel-store heist reaches him. The middle act of GTA V is structured around Trevor reconnecting with Michael, learning Brad is actually dead, and rebuilding the crew with Franklin Clinton in the third slot.

What makes Trevor work

Three character choices made Trevor one of the most-discussed protagonists in the series.

1. He is not redeemable, and the game does not pretend otherwise. Trevor commits acts that the rest of the cast finds horrifying. Rockstar's writing makes no attempt to soften this. Trevor is funny, smart, capable, and a genuine monster.
2. Steven Ogg's full-body performance. Trevor was one of the first major GTA roles built around full motion capture rather than voice-over plus body double. Ogg's mo-cap work made Trevor's physicality (his unpredictability, his stillness before violence) something the player feels rather than reads.
3. The Michael relationship. GTA V's emotional core is Trevor and Michael's twenty-year partnership. Trevor's anger at Michael's apparent death and his rage when he learns the truth carries the third act of the game.

Endings

Trevor is killable in two of GTA V's three endings:

• Ending A: Franklin kills Trevor at a Sandy Shores oil refinery.
• Ending B: Franklin kills Michael, Trevor survives.
• Ending C (the canonical Deathwish ending per community consensus): all three protagonists survive, the FIB, Merryweather, and Madrazo threats are eliminated.

For the wider GTA V protagonist arc, see our Michael, Trevor, Franklin protagonist piece and the three endings explained piece.

In the wider Rockstar universe

Trevor has not appeared in any post-GTA V Rockstar release. Steven Ogg has continued working on other notable projects (Westworld, The Walking Dead) but has consistently declined to comment on a possible Trevor return.