The producer of the Legend of Zelda series has explained why he and colleagues decided against having a female lead in the latest instalment. Eiji Aonuma said making Princess Zelda the main character would leave Link without a purpose.

Speculation about a possible female lead has been running for two years since a trailer showed an incarnation of the Link character (pictured) that some fans thought could be a female.

Now that’s proven not to be the case, Aonuma has given two separate explanations. He told GameSpot that the designers had considered making Princess Zelda the lead but rejected it for plot reasons: “If we have Princess Zelda as the main character who fights, then what is Link going to do?”

In an interview with Kotaku he explained why the crew had also rejected the idea of a female Link:

The Triforce is made up of Princess Zelda, Ganon and Link. Princess Zelda is obviously female. If we made Link a female we thought that would mess with the balance of the Triforce.

Aonuma did say that the fan speculation had inspired the company to use a female character, Linkle, in the recently-released 3DS edition of Hyrule Warriors.