Contrary to popular belief that Vile's character design was inspired by bounty hunter Boba Fett from the Star Wars franchise, and that his Japanese name VAVA (ヴァヴァ) was changed to Vile for the international release out of fear of a lawsuit from Lucasfilm (due to the letters "B" and "V" sometimes being used interchangeably in Japanese causing the name to appear too similar to "Boba"), Capcom character designer TOM-PON stated in a 2012 interview that VAVA's design was actually inspired by the character Bubba Zanetti (ババ・ザネッティ, transliterated as Baba Zanetti) from the 1979 film "Mad Max". Coincidentally, as VAVA is renamed Vile outside Japan, this would also result in Dr. Weil's name being transliterated as such from Dr. Vile in order to avoid confusion with him.

In Mega Man X8, Vile's primary color scheme was intentionally changed from purple to green, which more closely resembles Boba Fett, and may be a reference to their similarities.