Jack Baker developed considerably over the course of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard's production. Due to producer Jun Takeuchi's decision to delay script writing to give the art design team more freedom, Jack went through a variety of changes.[1]
The earliest concept of Jack was a character simply known as "Daddy", who was the head of a family of deranged killers. Morimasa Sato was tasked with explaining the character and giving him a role in the game. He came up with Jack stalking the player and having regenerative abilities to let him appear again and again. Some of his actions were inspired by Jack Torrance as played by Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrik's The Shining. The character's first name is in honour of both the actor and character.[2] In their attempt to create a duality with Jack as both a person and a creature, late-development changes had to be made. Both Takeuchi and director Kōshi Nakanishi took issue with an early version of the dinner cutscene when Jack and Marguerite were portrayed too normal; it was re-written and re-shot to make Jack assault his son, Lucas, turn on Ethan and shout at his wife.[2]
