Mass Effect's Commander Shepard Was Originally A Woman

Jonathan Cooper, the lead animator on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, revealed on Twitter today that the trilogy's main character, Commander Shepard, was originally a woman (via Polygon).

Cooper posted a brief animation, to his Twitter account, that shows a female character in motion. Cooper explains that the footage is the very first animation test done for Commander Shepard - created ten years ago today during the development of the first Mass Effect - and that the character was originally a woman.

Ten years ago this month, my very first anim test for Mass Effect. Yup, Commander Shepard was originally a woman: pic.twitter.com/FhC2E0FSrA

— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) January 9, 2015

To clarify, the Mass Effect games allow you to customize the main character in many ways, including choosing their gender, but the default Shepard was originally a male. However, many players who played through the Mass Effect games multiple times found the story more impactful when played through as a female Shepard, dubbed FemShep by fans, partly due to the superb voice acting of Jennifer Hale. FemShep became such a hit with fans that in Mass Effect 3, the final installment of the franchise's original trilogy, developer BioWare finally introduced a default female version of the character, and even shipped the game with reversible cover art, with the male Shepard on one side, and FemShep on the other (seen above).

Cooper went on to clarify that players were always intended to be able to play Shephard as a male or a female, but knowing that the earliest version of the character was female may bring some joy to the FemShep fans of the world.

Cooper is currently working on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End for Naughty Dog. A fourth installment of the Mass Effect franchise is currently in planning at BioWare.