The co-director of 2013’s The Last of Us, Neil Druckmann, first came up with the concept when he was attending grad school. For many years, there was a misconception in the gaming industry that female protagonists slow down game sales but that was proved to be wrong with the success of The Last of Us.
In a past interview, Druckmann highlighted that his goal was to create Ellie a cool, non-s*xualized female lead character. He has also stated in the past that he hopes other people get inspired by this idea as well but there is one game that may have s*xualised its protagonist to boost sales: Stellar Blade. This action-adventure video game developed by Shift Up was in the headlines after there were allegations of objectifying the game’s lead character, Eve.
The Last of Us‘ co-director wanted to portray Ellie as a cool, non-s*xualised female lead character
In a conversation during the Toronto chapter of the International Game Developers Association, Neil Druckmann, the co-director of 2013’s The Last of Us, explained his approach to the character of Ellie in the game. He revealed that he had a specific goal (via TheVerge)
I had this secret agenda – I wanted to create one of the coolest, non-s*xualized female video game protagonists. And I felt that if we did that, there’s an opportunity to change the industry. I know it sounds pretentious, but that was my goal.
Not a lot of people know that one of the prototypes of the game, titled Mankind, featured a Cordyceps infection that only targeted women. However, the idea was scrapped after women at Naughty Dog objected to its problematic premise, stating that the idea was misogynistic.
The change in this story may have been a crucial one as The Last of Us‘ story is one of the main reasons behind its success. Once again, with The Last of Us Part II, Druckmann focused on Ellie, once again proving that a game’s success doesn’t depend on the protagonist’s gender.
Games like Stellar Blade are still s*xualising their lead characters
In an interview with CreativeScreenWriting, Druckmann stated that he is proud of clearing out the misconception that games with female lead characters perform poorly. Druckmann was proud of what he created and even hoped that other gaming studios get inspired by this. Unfortunately, even after more than a decade, some studios are still creating games that s*xualise their lead characters to gain attention.
It’s safe to say that Shift Up’s 2024 game, Stellar Blade, has disappointed Druckmann as it completely goes against the idea that he wanted gaming studios to follow. Before the release of the game, it was clear that Eve was objectified to attract the male audience. Nonetheless, Stellar Blade received a good rating from the critics and was well-received by the fans.
