Dante's character redesign shares resemblances with the director of the game, Tameem Antoniades. Tameem stated in an interview that he did not intend for Dante to look like him, as he explained that Dante is "a decade and a half younger than me, way better looking... The only thing he's got is black hair. And he's male. I didn't design the character. I didn't go to our designers and say, 'I think it's a really good idea if we make the new Dante look like me, because I want to be in the game.' They'd laugh at me. They'd throw me out the window."