The original pitch for the game was called Mankind. In this version, all of the infected would have been women. Ellie would have been the only female to be immune, and Joel was protecting her in order to bring her to a lab to develop a vaccine. The idea was scrapped after several female Naughty Dog employees voiced criticism and concerns over the concept. Neil Druckmann has said that "the reason it failed is because it was a misogynistic idea."