Via the official Saints Row Twitter account.

I would have said that this is a relatively big spoiler, but when they're straight up posting a picture like this as a teaser for his return then I guess it's not.

I think many expected him to return. He's one of the most beloved Saints Row characters, he "died" off-screen in Saints Row: The Third (which always means an actual death is uncertain) and the virtual reality stuff in SRIV is an easy venue to make the character return.

HELL YES.

This is really the last thing this game needed for me to be fully excited, and now it's confirmed. Can't wait!

I beat SR3 and I only remember that name from the first couple of hours. Did he die early on? I must've forgotten.

I never spent much time with Saints Row 2 (it was horribly broken on pc) so my exposure to Johnny Gat is purely the opening to The Third, I've always wondered why he seemed so loved. Anyone care to educate me?

I only played The Third to completion, so like the others I'm not too in the know on Gat. But from what I've seen he's already pretty awesome. Don't gotta know the backstory to know that a dude with a big van with his head on the front that shoots out fire is probably alright.

When you think about it, he never actually left.

He was never my favourite part of Saints Row 2, and his lines have never been that great. Never understood the appeal, but ehhhhh, it's not like I've played a SR game without him :P

"Gatsi back"?

i will wait untill this game goes down in price

Well, a virtual representation of Gat.

The real Gat is most probably still dead.

I really hope that he's only "back" in the VR simulation...

...so that he can come back again for real in Saints Row 5.

They shoulda waited just one more game.

@jouseldelka: He dies on the plane.

They will pull the VR Sim Gat out into the real world and give him a mechanical body. Robo-Gat.

That sounds like dlc.

That sounds like dlc that I will buy on day one.

lol "real" Gat. Saints Row story cannon.

I can't be the only person that always hated this guy. I've always wanted to kill him myself.

I would've preferred it if they'd kept this secret tbh. I remember playing Modern Warfare 2 and when Captain Price suddenly turned up out of nowhere halfway through the game it was a pretty cool surprise. Not the biggest thing tho

I dunno, they've got Michael Dorn back voicing a character that got a much less ambiguous death in SR2, so it could easily get explained away with the VR thing.

That kind of looks like a mix of Bruno Mars and Lil Wayne.

But whatever Gat is back!

This is going to be in the virtual reality world, isn't it?

That's my guess.

This is pretty gooooood. As someone that played through the entire series up until this point, I look forward to more of Mr. Gat's asshattery.

@mooseymcman said:

My thoughts exactly.

I wish they would've kept it a secret; would've been an awesome reveal in-game.

I wish they would've kept it a secret; would've been an awesome reveal in-game.

One should never badmouth the marvel of consistency that is the Saints Row canon.

NEVER.

As someone else said.

Virtual Gat.

Who then forces himself out of the simulation to be real Gat again.

As someone else said.

Virtual Gat.

Who then forces himself out of the simulation to be real Gat again.

As someone else said.

Virtual Gat.

Who then forces himself out of the simulation to be real Gat again.

He tripped and fell. Now he's back.

Nice, considering the tech the Saints have in SR4, they should be able to clone him or find his identical twin lost in China or something.

Well obviously they go back in time and stop Gat from getting killed, which is why you never see him die in the first place. Timewarp took him out of the past and directly into the future.

Warning: I may have just spoiled the game.

So they're pulling an Ellie with this one then.. good for them!

Well obviously they go back in time and stop Gat from getting killed, which is why you never see him die in the first place. Timewarp took him out of the past and directly into the future.

Warning: I may have just spoiled the game.

Some other people are back, too, along with the Saints Row 2 version of Shaundi. My theory is that they use the VR Simulation and pull Virtua Gat out into the real world. A terrible consequence of this action is bringing Virtua versions of Maero and Loren into the world, and then we get a super villain team up of people the Boss has previously killed.

@n7: Yeah, I think you just cracked the code.

As somebody that has only played SR2 I am terrified that Johnny Gat has died and relieved that he's back in SR4.

I remember seeing him a lot in Saints Row 2, but then I got spoiled about him dying in SR3. Good to have him back.

That is clearly his front

I always recall that scene in SR3 where you meet one of the DeWinter sisters in a park with Oleg and you talk while a guy plays a sax in the background and when you mention Johnny I think the camera cuts to him as he stops playing for a second. I always thought something would come of that and was really surprised that they just left him dead in the end.

Virtual or not, Gat is back and this makes me happy as hell.

Great news! Though why they would even 'kill him off' in The Third to begin with baffles me to no end... Daniel Dae Kim himself was apparently just as shocked, so I wouldn't think it had anything to do with money.

They kinda already did in the Trouble with Clones DLC, only his clone (coined as Johnny Tag) was just a a Johnny Gat skinned Oleg. I wonder if they'll actually acknowledge that stuff, or will just brush it under the rug.

Though from everything else they've shown thus far, SRIV is looking to be the greatest hits of Saints Row, with just about every character ever returning.

JOHNNY GAT DON'T GIVE ANY SHITS ABOUT MOTHERFUCKING ALIENS.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Retconned!

Also, trailer!

I share the opinion of whoever said that it would have been better unspoiled. :(

Damn the internet and my curiosity.

(Trailer was OK though)

I think it would be funny if he was just alive again with literally no explanation as to how and no one ever mentioned it.