A victory for the #WheresRey movement today: Hasbro is promising to add The Force Awakens’ lead character Rey to Star Wars Monopoly after she was strangely left out in the initial release.
The new version of Monopoly themed around Star Wars and The Force Awakens was recently released, and fans quickly noticed that the game was missing the latest film’s main character despite including Finn, Kylo Ren, and Darth Vader (who isn’t even in the movie).
Hasbro’s excuse after the #WheresRey movement noticed? “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,” they toymaker said in a statement to The Cut. “Fans will see more Rey product hitting store shelves this month, including 6-inch and 12-inch Rey action figures.”
The statement didn’t sit well with Star Wars fans, who countered that Hasbro could’ve put Rey in the gear she appears in at the beginning of the movie.
Someone at Hasbro eventually realized they should probably do more than make excuses, and on Tuesday night they announced that they’d be re-releasing the Monopoly game later this year with a Rey figure included:
.@CarrieMGoldman @JillPantozzi @Epbot pic.twitter.com/IQ5TNbOygW
— Hasbro (@HasbroNews) January 6, 2016
They didn’t say if they’d be replacing one of the characters in the set, but if we were to nominate one, we’d pick Darth Vader. Since.. you know.. he’s not a character who appears in The Force Awakens.
While good news, the incident reminds us once again that the people who handle Star Wars merchandise seem to have it out for Rey. Why is she missing from so many Force Awakens toys? Do they have data that shows boys will not buy toys if girls are included in the play sets? Do they just not like her?
We recently compiled a list of Star Wars merchandise that DOES focus on Rey — check it out here.
Here’s what the board game looks like in case you’re curious. We’d provide a link to buy it, but we don’t want to encourage any sales of Star Wars toys that are obnoxiously missing the film’s lead character.
