There are lots of colorful characters in the world of Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, and many of them are mentioned and show in both games. However, there is one iconic character, a gunslinger who goes by Landon Ricketts, who could have had a much larger role in Red Dead Redemption 2, but the developers at Rockstar Games decided to only allude to him in passing instead.
In Red Dead Redemption, the outlaw John Marston first meets Landon Ricketts in the Mexican town of Chuparosa after dispatching a few bandits. Ricketts, impressed with John's weapon handling, gives the player both a new revolver and a new Dead Eye ability, and the two become something akin to friends. Ricketts later assists John on a number of missions throughout Red Dead Redemption's Mexico portion, and the two part ways amicably.
Landon Ricketts was almost like a movie star to John Marston, thanks to his notoriety as a famous outlaw and gunslinger. Although he isn't shown to be involved with anything regarding the Van Der Linde gang in Red Dead Redemption 2, local gossip places Landon Ricketts at both the scene of the Blackwater Massacre and the gunfight that lead to the deaths of the famous Butcher Brothers. While some Ricketts' past is revealed through dialog with John Marston in Red Dead Redemption, much more of it must be pieced together from offhand remarks and cigarette cards in Red Dead Redemption 2.
How RDR2 Remembers Landon Ricketts
Although he doesn't appear in Red Dead Redemption 2's story mode (despite being the perfect age to fit right in with the other characters) Landon Ricketts is still heavily referenced throughout the game. Players can find a cigarette card, one of RDR2's many collectibles, bearing Rickett's image behind a house in Armadillo, and Arthur Morgan himself brings up Rickett's fame as a gunslinger, comparing his prowess to Sadie Adler's. Another cigarette card confirms the date of one of Rickett's accomplishments, the death of the Butcher Brothers, in 1896.
A deputy in the city of Valentine also mentions Landon Ricketts by name during Red Dead Redemption 2, and even John Marston brings him up once during a poker game in an easily-missed scene at the Van Der Linde gang's camp. The final reference to Landon Ricketts in RDR2 is in the book Wild West Heroes No. 32, where Ricketts and Jim "Boy" Calloway (a character Red Dead Redemption 2 players actually DO meet) are described as trying to break into a Mexican military fort. The excerpt even contains a callback to the original Red Dead Redemption's dialog, with Ricketts telling Calloway "Keep jumping from one side of the fence to the other, and you just might get impaled on it," which is something he says to John in the previous game.
Unfortunately, Landon Ricketts himself doesn't show up in Red Dead Redemption 2, but that's probably for the best. Rockstar Games likely chose not to include Ricketts so that his character could retain a bit of mystery, and to ensure that there was always someone, be it another outlaw or an idol, that the world's characters could look up to, talk about, and fear. RDR2 explored a lot of characters and situations only hinted at in the original Red Dead Redemption, but it didn't ruin the mystique of that game's most interesting character. Judging from the amount of references and conversations, Rockstar clearly didn't forget about Ricketts in Red Dead Redemption 2, it just wanted to keep him at arm's length.