When Rockstar Games finally unveiled the first two trailers for GTA 6 Money, the gaming world stopped in its tracks. The decade-long wait following GTA V’s release had built anticipation to a fever pitch, and the trailers did not disappoint. Both showcased Rockstar’s unparalleled eye for detail, their flair for satire, and their uncanny ability to bottle the spirit of a place and pour it into their fictional worlds. This time, the setting is Leonida—a fictional state heavily inspired by Florida, particularly its southern regions.

As someone who has lived in Florida for over two decades, watching the trailers was a surreal experience. I found myself pointing at the screen, blurting out familiar names: “That’s the Everglades! That’s Hard Rock Stadium! That’s Hallandale Beach!” Rockstar has done an astonishing job recreating the rhythm, texture, and contradictions of South Florida life. The neon glow, the swampy wilderness, the vibrant nightlife, the pastel beachfront architecture—it’s all there.

But there’s one element that struck me as off, and it still bothers me months later. It’s not the over-the-top stunts, the chaotic violence, or the satirical caricatures of American culture. It’s a pet iguana.

Yes, a pet iguana.

The Iguana in the Spotlight

In Trailer 2, we see an iguana dressed in a Jimmy Buffet-style tropical shirt, wandering casually as if it belongs in the middle of a sun-soaked Leonida street. The iguana shows up again in promotional material, clearly spotlighted as part of Rockstar’s depiction of Florida’s eccentricities. If that weren’t enough, Trailer 1 also featured another iguana perched on the shoulders of a man sitting on the sidewalk.

The intention is clear: the iguana is meant to be a quirky background detail, a nod to Florida’s reputation for oddball characters, exotic pets, and “Florida Man” headlines that defy belief. It’s funny, it’s colorful, and it seems perfectly in line with the exaggerated world Rockstar is known for.

And yet, for Floridians, there’s something about this detail that rings false.

Why Iguanas Don’t Work as “Everyday Florida Pets”

To understand why the iguana feels contrived, you need to know the history of these lizards in Florida. Green iguanas are not native to the state; they are invasive. Originally from Central and South America, they became established in Florida thanks to the exotic pet trade. Over the years, enough iguanas escaped or were released into the wild that their population exploded, particularly in South Florida’s tropical climate.

For anyone who has lived in Florida, iguanas are less a symbol of quirky pet ownership and more a nuisance. They tear up gardens, leave droppings all over patios and pools, burrow into seawalls and sidewalks (causing real infrastructure damage), and occasionally even fall out of trees when temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Far from being beloved pets, they’re closer to pests—giant, cold-blooded squirrels that Floridians grudgingly tolerate.

While some people do keep iguanas as pets, it’s far from common, and their care is notoriously difficult. They require specialized diets, precise temperatures, and large enclosures. Most pet iguanas are not docile companions but stressed, defensive reptiles that can lash out with claws and tails. The image of Floridians casually strolling around with iguanas in Hawaiian shirts just doesn’t match the reality.

Rockstar’s Satire: Accurate but Selective

Rockstar has always excelled at satire. From Los Santos’ obsession with plastic surgery and influencer culture in GTA V to Vice City’s pastel-soaked critique of 1980s excess, their games take real-world quirks and amplify them until they’re absurd. The iguana in GTA 6 is very much in line with that tradition.

But here’s the catch: satire works best when it exaggerates something recognizable. A player from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa might laugh at parodied billboards for retirement homes or NPCs ranting about hurricanes. They might smirk knowingly at a caricature of a Miami nightclub mogul or a “Florida Man” type wrestling an alligator. Those exaggerations work because they’re rooted in lived reality.

The iguana, however, feels like satire from an outsider’s perspective. To non-Floridians, iguanas seem like the perfect symbol of Florida’s eccentricity: tropical, weird, and a little absurd. But to locals, they’re a mundane and often frustrating part of everyday life—not exotic pets but invasive lizards clogging up backyards and docks. It’s a rare instance where Rockstar’s research nails the vibe of Florida overall but stumbles on the specifics.

Florida Is Strange Enough Without Iguanas in Shirts

The irony is that Rockstar didn’t need to invent this iguana-as-pet trope. Florida provides an endless supply of real-life eccentricities that could have been mined for satire. Just look at the headlines:

A man arrested for driving a stolen golf cart through an airport runway.

A woman pulled over with a baby alligator in the passenger seat.

A church fundraiser accidentally serving spiked brownies.

Entire neighborhoods losing power because of iguanas short-circuiting power lines.

The last example even highlights the iguana issue in a way that is both funny and true to life. An iguana knocking out the power grid during a high-stakes mission? That would be an authentically Floridian detail. An iguana in a tropical shirt? Not so much.

The Power of Environmental Storytelling

This minor gripe about iguanas actually points to something deeper about GTA 6: Rockstar’s mastery of environmental storytelling. Every screenshot, every background NPC, every tiny flourish of world design is part of a bigger mosaic meant to immerse players in Leonida.

From what we’ve seen, Rockstar’s attention to detail is staggering. The Everglades are portrayed with an eerie, humid beauty. The beaches thrum with both life and decay, a mix of sun-soaked paradise and looming menace. The stadiums, highways, and neon-drenched strip malls are instantly recognizable to anyone who’s driven through Miami-Dade or Broward County. Even the way NPCs carry themselves—dancing on car rooftops, fishing off bridges, loitering in 24-hour bodegas—feels ripped from real life.

It’s because Rockstar gets so much right that the iguana detail stands out. It’s the one brushstroke on an otherwise perfect painting that makes locals pause.

Why This Matters More Than It Should

At first glance, complaining about iguanas in GTA 6 seems nitpicky, even absurd. Who cares if Rockstar overplayed one quirky detail when the rest of the game looks phenomenal?

But world-building in games is fragile. Players suspend their disbelief to inhabit these spaces, and even small inaccuracies can jolt them out of immersion—especially when the world is meant to mirror their lived reality. For Floridians, the iguana detail risks breaking that spell.

Think of it like watching a movie set in New York where everyone eats Chicago-style deep-dish pizza on the street. To outsiders, it might not matter. But to locals, it’s a glaring, distracting detail that makes them roll their eyes.

What the Iguana Still Gets Right

That said, there’s also a way in which the iguana does fit into Rockstar’s world. The entire GTA franchise thrives on caricature, exaggeration, and absurd humor. A Hawaiian-shirt-wearing iguana isn’t meant to be realistic; it’s meant to be memorable. If nothing else, it’s a visual gag that players will point at and laugh about, the same way they chuckle at NPCs jogging into traffic or street preachers shouting about the apocalypse.

It also speaks to the game’s tonal balancing act. GTA 6, like its predecessors, isn’t just about gritty crime dramas—it’s about the absurdity of modern life. The iguana might not reflect Florida reality, but it does reflect the kind of surreal, dreamlike version of reality that GTA has always thrived on.

The Bigger Picture: Rockstar’s Love Letter to Florida

In the end, the iguana debate is a small quibble in what looks to be a remarkable achievement. The trailers have already cemented Leonida as one of Rockstar’s most detailed and ambitious settings ever. The game doesn’t just replicate Florida—it exaggerates it, lampoons it, and celebrates its contradictions all at once.

Florida is a place where pristine beaches exist beside crime-ridden neighborhoods, where swampy wilderness butts up against glittering luxury, where retirees, immigrants, spring breakers, and hustlers collide daily buy GTA 6 Money. It’s absurd, chaotic, and full of stories waiting to be told. If any place was ever destined to become the backdrop for the next great Grand Theft Auto saga, it’s Florida.

And maybe that’s the point. Whether or not Floridians approve of the iguana in a Hawaiian shirt, it’s one more detail that gets people talking—and that’s exactly what Rockstar wants.

Conclusion: The Iguana as a Symbol

At its core, the iguana in GTA 6 is more than just a misplaced detail. It’s a symbol of the delicate dance Rockstar performs when turning reality into parody. Most of the time, they get it right, creating a world that feels authentic while still larger-than-life. Occasionally, they miss the mark, and locals will raise their eyebrows. But even those misses add to the conversation, reminding us that GTA isn’t a documentary—it’s satire.

So when GTA 6 finally launches, and players flood into Leonida’s sun-scorched streets, maybe the iguana won’t feel like such a problem after all. Maybe it will be just another piece of absurdist humor in a game that thrives on the ridiculous. Or maybe Floridians will keep shaking their heads, muttering, “That’s not how it really is.”

Either way, Rockstar has achieved what it always does: it’s made us look closer, laugh harder, and think about the strange, wonderful, messy places we call home.