Legend of Zelda Wii U: Eiji Aonuma Addresses 'Female Lead Character' Rumours

Nintendo's reveal of a new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii U at E3 earlier this year was one of the show's highlights. Our first glimpse came in a snap of franchise supervisor Eiji Aonuma's fingers, showing us the vast and open plain you can see above.

In that initial reveal (which you can watch at the foot of this article) Aonuma spoke of how the game would go back to the series' roots of player exploration.

The trailer was also the matter of some debate after Aonuma refused to confirm whether the character we see is series hero Link, leading many to speculate it might be a girl.

In an interview with Edge Magazine, Aonuma addressed this speculation, as well as talking about how the game's open world will differ to other open-world games on the market.

"I should watch what I say," said Aounuma when asked about the comments that started all the conjecture.

"I purposely tried not to talk too much about the new game at this year's E3. That's because I was not in a position to give clear information about what kind of game it is, and also because, by doing so, I wanted to gauge people's reactions as they tried to get an idea about this new game."

Mentioning the speculation that grew from his comments, Aonuma said: "This reaction from fans is something I would like to take into consideration as we proceed with development – although that doesn't mean we are going to change the main character to a girl."

The Legend of Zelda series heading back to its more open routes was the biggest story to come from Nintendo's reveal and Aonuma spoke about this.

"Since we're talking about the concept of 'open worlds' now, I'd like to state upfront that in this new Zelda game, we don't plan to have an open world in the same way other companies have been doing in recent years," he said.

"The innovation of a vast open world could in one sense be seen as a return to the roots of the series. But in returning to these roots, we are also bringing with us everything we have learned and ways the series has developed over all this time, which will help to create new and exciting gameplay possibilities."

Aonuma highlighted how the Wii U gamepad would be used, pointing out it would house a "real map that depicts this world as it is".

The full interview can be read in this month's issue of Edge Magazine (#271). The Legend of Zelda Wii U is expected to be released in 2015.