The first major cast member has confirmed his appearance in Grand Theft Auto 6, seemingly going off Rockstar’s tightly controlled marketing script.

Stephen Root, who voices Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland on the animated series King of the Hill, confirmed his involvement in GTA 6 in an interview with the Associated Press.

“Yeah, you’re gonna see me in it,” he said. “It’s coming out November 19th, is the latest I know of. I think from the first rollout of GTA they were doing maybe almost a year ago they had my character in there. And there are too many people who knew me from King of the Hill and my voice! So I think that secret kind of got divulged then.”

That’s a nod to GTA 6 Trailer 2, which featured a character who sounded so much like Root that fans put two and two together and — now we know — came up with the right answer. We know this character to be Brian Heder, a drug trafficker and apparent boatyard owner seen speaking to Jason about paying rent. “Just go get me my cheques!” he shouts as Jason heads indoors.

We see much more of Heder in the recent GTA 6 Extended Look, where he offers Jason words of advice. We also meet his wife, Lori Heder. Here’s the official blurb from Rockstar’s GTA 6 website:

“Brian's a classic drug runner from the golden age of smuggling in the Keys. Still moving product through his boat yard with his third wife, Lori, Brian's been around long enough to let others do his dirty work.

“Brian’s letting Jason live rent-free at one of his properties — so long as he helps with local shakedowns, and stops by for Lori’s sangria once in a while."

“I’m so happy to be involved with it. It’s an amazing thing to look at,” Root added when asked what it was like working on GTA 6, clearly trying not to give too much away.

Remarkably, Rockstar has yet to confirm any GTA 6 actors, leading fans to try to work out the cast for themselves. We don’t even know who plays Jason and Lucia, the game’s dual protagonists. Perhaps we won’t until the game is out in November and the credits roll.

While you wait to find out, check out IGN’s extensive GTA 6 coverage, including our interview with Rockstar’s Rob Nelson on what to expect.

Blizzard has insisted Diablo 4 still has “bright support” as the community debates the shock news that no more expansions will be released for the game and with Diablo 5 looming over the horizon.

At BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony, Blizzard announced Diablo 5 for 2029. It’s due out six years after Diablo 4, and promises more classes than any Diablo game has had before. (If you need a catch-up, here's everything announced at BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony.)

But what does all this mean for Diablo 4? In an interview with PC Gamer, Diablo 4 game director Brent Gibson said Blizzard is now focused on releasing seasons for Diablo 4 and “getting to Diablo 5.”

“We feel like we told the Story of Hatred,” he added. “We had a great conclusion with Lord of Hatred with what we have with Mephisto, and we are moving towards telling the Story of Terror." That’s a reference to Diablo 5, which sees Diablo himself ruling over a post-apocalyptic Sanctuary.

Some Diablo 4 players have reacted to the news with anger, particularly the lack of any new expansions. Players are pointing out that former Diablo 4 boss, Rod Fergusson, mentioned “annual expansions” for the action role-playing game back in 2023. That hasn’t happened, with just two released (Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred). Clearly, the early ambition for Diablo 4 has changed. Fergusson left Blizzard and Diablo last year to help get the new Bioshock game out the door at 2K Games.

“Why did they kill this game? I thought Lord of Hatred was well received?” one person asked on the Diablo 4 subreddit. “Guess those promises of supporting D4 for a long long time went out the window,” another said. Some are even calling into question further investment in Diablo 4, in terms of time and money.

“So why the f**k would anyone want to buy anything in D4 anymore?” another player said. “No point in buying battlepass or buying skins or collect. Unless they bring everything over to D5 like POE2, there is no point. What a disappointment.”

“This f***ing blows,” one fan added. “I thought the plan was yearly expansions, not just a 100 year timeskip and slap in the face.”

It’s important to note that others in the Diablo community are countering the backlash by saying Diablo 4 has offered — and continues to offer — plenty of content and that six years before a sequel is a reasonable amount of time.

“I spent $100 on Diablo 4 and only got over a thousand hours of entertainment,” one person joked. “Bliz bad I guess?”

“[Shrugs],” another said. “I'm not bent out of shape over the announcement, just a little surprised. As soon as you announce the next game in the series, that immediately takes the wind out of the sails of the current one. Announcing three years out, they either have a lot of faith in D4 to keep moving copies, or absolutely no faith in it.”

So, what exactly does Blizzard have in store for Diablo 4 over the next three years? At BlizzCon, it announced Season of Hell's Legacy, which starts tomorrow, September 15. Guided by the soul of the much-loved Deckard Cain, players face bosses from across the Diablo franchise, including the echoes of the Prime Evils. Further ahead, the Amazon class is coming to Diablo 4 during the first half of 2027. Just don’t expect any new expansions.

At BlizzCon, IGN spoke with Diablo 5 game director Joe Shely, narrative director Jennifer Helper, and production director Tiffany Wat, who confirmed the sequel is already in full production, but insisted there’s life left in Diablo 4.

“Diablo 4 has bright support,” Shely said. “It's fully supported by the team. We were just announcing earlier today, coming to Diablo 4, the Amazon, the Season of Hell's legacy, Diablo 4 is coming to Switch 2, and there will continue to be ongoing support for Diablo 4. There's many reasons for players to keep playing. And of course, we've been in development for some time on Diablo 5. We're in full production and it's been really an exciting time for us to be able to get to share it with players.”

Wat went on to say Blizzard has dedicated teams for each of its Diablo games, and they all work together on updates. “We have dedicated teams for each of those games because those games are important to us and they're really important for our community,” wat explained. “I think it really gives us a really great opportunity to be able to collaborate together, to talk with one another. Even though we might be distinct teams, we still work together quite closely because ultimately we are making games for the Diablo community. I think it's the best time to be a Diablo fan.”

The question for Blizzard will be whether Diablo 4 seasons and the Amazon class are enough to keep players interested. The sentinent online from core players is that Diablo 4 has, overnight, reduced interest. I've even seen some players question why they should bother fussing over the Geralt skin for the Barbarian class knowing Diablo 5 is coming in three years and cosmetics won't cross over.

While tons of new updates are coming to Diablo, including a new Netflix series, Diablo 4 Season 15, a Switch 2 port, and more, the biggest reveal for the franchise at BlizzCon 2026 was the announcement of Diablo V, coming in 2029.

IGN sat down exclusively with the team behind the upcoming game, including Game Director Joe Shely, Narrative Director Jennifer Helper, and Production Director Tiffany Wat, who gave us tons of new details about Diablo 5, including how it’s already past early development.

IGN: I know probably nobody has missed the Diablo 5 announcement, but can you guys just kind of give sort of a top-level view of what the game will be?

Joe Shely: Diablo 5 is a world where Sanctuary has fallen and Diablo has won. That means that the world is in an apocalypse. The fate that players have been trying to prevent for many years throughout other Diablo games has happened. Other heroes rose up, tried to stop Diablo, and failed. Diablo sits on the throne of Westmarch and has conquered all of the Western continent.

IGN: Diablo 4 still has some life in it. What are you planning to achieve in Diablo 5 that you don't think that as a whole would've been able to be achievable in Diablo 4?

Shely: Diablo 4 has bright support. It's fully supported by the team. We were just announcing earlier today, coming to Diablo 4, the Amazon, the Season of Hell's legacy, Diablo 4 is coming to Switch 2, and there will continue to be ongoing support for Diablo 4. There's many reasons for players to keep playing. And of course, we've been in development for some time on Diablo 5. We're in full production and it's been really an exciting time for us to be able to get to share it with players.

Jennifer Helper: We’re bringing Diablo back and Diablo should never be an “and another thing” in a Diablo game. We need a full campaign and full story based around Diablo. [With Diablo 5], we've jumped a hundred years ahead to tell that story so that Diablo 4 has lots of space to continue their story and their development while we're doing Diablo 5.

Tiffany Wat: [Diablo 5] is an opportunity for us to really lean into some of the incredible innovations, both on the technology, but also on the gameplay and system side. We are bringing more classes than you’ve ever seen in a Diablo game. We talked about bringing back the procedural world, something that was really popular in prior Diablo games, and we leaned into it in Diablo 4 with our dungeon system. In Diablo 5, we really felt that this is such a really fun and integral way to be playing Diablo, and we wanted to bring it back to both the overworld and the dungeon systems.

Joe talks to his team a lot about the importance of constant discovery and not knowing what's around the corner. That adds an element of danger to the world of Sanctuary and that really ties well with the story that Jennifer and her team are trying to tell. Being able to tie all of that together and really reach for the gameplay ambitions that Joe and his team have, it made a lot of sense for us to just embark on a sequel, and we've been doing it for a little bit of time now.

IGN: It seems like you guys are going for more of that traditional overworld that people travel to in different spaces. So we're not going to have that open world vibe like we did in Diablo 4.

Wat: There are no more towns because Diablo and his Dread Commanders have completely destroyed Sanctuary. And so that caravan that you are gathering, these members that you have met, survivors of Sanctuary that are coming along with you to try and just survive, figure out what's going on with Diablo, you're moving from region to region and that gives us a chance to really show what Sanctuary looks like when it's under the Lord of Terror and see the different ways that the Dread Commanders have twisted the world. Joe and I worked together on monsters for over a decade now on Diablo, and man, the monsters team is cooking. So being able to see the twisted, disgusting, horrifying demons that show up at different times in different worlds that you're loading into is just really, really cool.

IGN: When Diablo 5 launches, support seems like it'll continue for Diablo 4 and other games. Do you foresee any challenges with not just player retention, but overall content creation when you have basically five Diablo games in rotation for people to come back to season after season?

Wat: We have dedicated teams for each of those games because those games are important to us and they're really important for our community. I think it really gives us a really great opportunity to be able to collaborate together, to talk with one another. Even though we might be distinct teams, we still work together quite closely because ultimately we are making games for the Diablo community. I think it's the best time to be a Diablo fan.

IGN: The ARPG market is getting larger. How does Diablo evolve in a market when the target audience is split across multiple titles? Do you look to these games to see what types of new things they're making to inject into your games?

Shely: Of course. ARPGs are ultimately systems games underneath everything. And we play everything that relates to Diablo or could give us an idea of what players are enjoying. But in particular, the way that we approach it is by focusing on the things that are really core to Diablo and Diablo really excels at. Things like evolving our combat model, things like making a game that's approachable and has an incredible campaign. We want this to be our best campaign ever.

Some of the crunchiness of Diablo 2 that really speaks to many of the core ARPG players has inspired Diablo 5 with things like stat requirements returning on items, item tiers, which is very much inspired by Diablo 2, and even things like the return of the belt slot or multi-slot items in your inventory.

IGN: Can you talk a little bit actually about the return of the belt slot and about the itemization in Diablo 5 versus say Diablo 4 and how you guys plan to approach that?

Shely: I mean, the simple answer is that the belt slot is generally a more exciting slot than the pants slot. The belt slot is just a reflection of the way that we look at the suite of items that the player can equip. And we always want to balance that so that you have the right amount of different pieces of your gear that you're chasing both between the weapons and the armor. So in terms of evolving the visual style, one of the things that the belt slot lets us do is make gear sets that are more cohesive between the chest armor and the pants.

IGN: We see that Diablo is coming back now in Diablo 4, starting with season 15. You've got however many more seasons between now and Diablo 5 launches. Is there anything you're worried about with Diablo’s implementation maybe in Diablo 4 versus how he's going to appear in Diablo 5?

Helper: We also not only are a hundred years ahead, we are back on the Western continent. So Diablo 4’s content is all in the East and we are back in Westmarch, which everyone is familiar with from the first three games. And Westmarch has expanded over the entire Western continent. So we've got a lot of future history of the Western continent that we haven't seen in a really long time that we're going to be able to cover that is a completely open space for us.

IGN: Last question. When will we learn more about Diablo 5?

Shely: When we decided to announce that we've been working on Diablo V, we wanted to make sure that we shared some meaningful updates, talking about classes, talking about the return of the Demon Hunter, the Monk, new classes like the Plague Knight, things like itemization that we talked about before. And we want to continue that conversation. And in particular, the reason to talk about the game now and continue that conversation into 2027, when we'll share more about it, is to be able to talk with players, talk with everyone out there who loves Diablo, and build the game alongside them and by listening to the things that they want.