Arguable the main lead of the new film, Star Wars nerds, sci-fi fans and general movie goers have all been praising Daisy Ridley’s turn as a spell-binding step forward for female leads in Hollywood. So why snub her from the game?
The game, released under licence by both Disney and Hasbro (certainly no strangers to each other) is sadly not even the first Force Awakens product to fall under fire for excluding Rey, over a number of less prominent male characters.
The game’s defence? It features “2 Rebel, 2 Empire” character tokens, pulling from the Star Wars “Legacy”, as well as its latest instalment.
Fans have been so vocal about her exclusion, in fact, that the hashtag #whereisrey is now on the map.
Looking to pick up other Star Wars merch with a Rey figure? You may be in store for a disappointment, as – among other sets – Hasbro’s latest Millennium Falcon set only features toy versions of Chewbacca, Finn and BB-8. Because why would the female star of the film, who works on and pilots the ship be included?
Other Force Awakens sets, including this one from Target, feature similar issues:
Featuring Kylo Ren, Chewbacca, Finn, Poe Dameron, a Stormtrooper and a TIE Fighter pilot, we need to ask again, #whereisrey?
Or Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma, for that matter?
When confronted about the issue in an interview with The Daily Beast, Disney promised that we would be seeing more Rey merchandise, with a release of toy lines in January. “Rey and Phasma feature prominently across hundreds of products, and are selling exceptionally well,” Disney’s senior vice president and head of licensing for Lucasfilm, Paul Southern, said. “In many stores and e-commerce destinations, products featuring Rey are selling as quickly as retailers can restock shelves. Fans will also be seeing a lot more of Rey with a new wave of product coming in January.”
A Hasbro spokesperson has spoken out about the issue to Entertainment Weekly, stating “The Star Wars: Monopoly game was released in September, months before the movie’s release, and Rey was not included to avoid revealing a key plot line.” Having seen the film, that doesn’t really go down well for us. They do go on to say, however, “We are thrilled with the popularity of this compelling character and will continue to look for ways to showcase Rey across all of our product lines.”
Let’s just hope this is the case, then. As for now, #whereisrey
Source: Squareeyed
UPDATE:
Monopoly have released a response to the whole situation: “The Star Wars: Monopoly game was released in September, months before the movie’s release, and Rey was not included to avoid revealing a key plot line that she takes on Kylo Ren and joins the Rebel Alliance.”
Now we think this is a weak-sauce response given that we’ve all seen Rey in The Force Awakens for a number of months now, so there’s no reason we couldn’t have had here with her staff.
However, there is a happy ending to this: “We love the passion fans have for Rey, and are happy to announce that we will be making a running change to include her in the Monopoly: Star Wars game available later this year”
That’s a win for the fans… but it’s a fight that should never have been necessary.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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