Zero was created by designer Keiji Inafune when he was told to recreate Mega Man for a new series on the Super Nintendo, "Mega Man X". He wanted to design a Mega Man different from the original one. However, Inafune realized afterwards that the character he created was too different from Mega Man's old appearance to be viewed positively by fans. Deciding to let another designer work on the character that eventually became Mega Man X while he developed Zero, Inafune created the character intending him to be "the 'other main character' that would "steal all the good scenes". He further described Zero as representing the idea that "nothing is absolute", and circumstances can change anything. When asked if Zero had killed the cast of the original "Mega Man" titles, suspected due to their absence in the "X" series, he replied no, adding that given how he had designed the character, "Zero is not such a person--it is not in his profile."