Every since Red Dead Redemption 2 released back in 2018, fans have held out hope that Rockstar would release a DLC sequel to the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare add-on. Undead Nightmare was an extremely successful DLC which took place in an alternate canon where John Marston’s family is infected by a zombie plague. He then sets out in search of a cure while avoiding the undead horde and old friends and foes.
Unfortunately for many Red Dead fans, hopes of a sequel to Undead Nightmare may as well be laid to rest. With Rockstar releasing more DLC and zombies even added to the game for a separate event without apparent plans for a sequel to the add-on, there are a few key reasons fans shouldn’t keep their hopes up for a return to Undead Nightmare in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Undead Nightmare 2
Red Dead Redemption released in May 2010, and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare added a new story campaign just five months later in October of the same year. For comparison, Red Dead Redemption 2 was released in October of 2018, around two years ago, and there has been no confirmation that Rockstar is working on a sequel to Undead Nightmare.
While the Red Dead Redemption 2 community is still going strong, Rockstar is mostly focused on creating updates for Red Dead Online. It is possible that the studio has missed the boat on adding story DLCs at this point already, with most discussion about the game’s acclaimed single player story already long passed.
Zombies are included as part of Red Dead Online’s upcoming Fear of the Dark event for Halloween, with hunters facing down Night Stalkers in the new update. However, the models made for the zombies are specific to the event, and while it appears that Rockstar was hoping to satiate calls for Undead Nightmare 2 with the Halloween reference, it doesn’t not seem likely that Rockstar is setting up the models for use in any new single-player campaign.
Undead Nightmare's Continuity
A new DLC set in the Undead Nightmare timeline wouldn’t really make sense for Red Dead Redemption 2 as a prequel. The main action of Undead Nightmare takes place in 1911 when an Aztec mask is stolen, releasing the zombie curse. John Marston is able to undo the curse, curing his family, but then the main events of Red Dead occur as normal. In Undead Nightmare, however, John gets to return from the dead as a revenant, a zombie with a soul.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel, and fans would likely want to see a similar zombie plot play out with Arthur Morgan this time instead of John. There isn’t a clear way to make an Undead Nightmare 2 that is part of the same non-canon continuity as the original Undead Nightmare without it seeming strange that John didn’t know about the zombie outbreak faced by Arthur a few years prior.
An easy solution to this would be to have Undead Nightmare 2 take place in its own isolated non-canon continuity, but then the game would risk feeling like it too closely emulated the first Undead Nightmare. It seems likely that Rockstar Games was happy with the first add-on, the story it allowed the company to tell, and the setting it played with, and doesn’t want to risk its legacy with a sequel.
That said, Rockstar’s next game is reportedly a long way off. It is possible that Red Dead Online has given Red Dead 2 the longevity necessary to justify the release of Undead Nightmare at this stage, or that it might be a good project for the developer to work on during quarantine. After two years, however, most fans will have given up hope for Undead Nightmare 2.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.