Hasbro is now adding the Rey character from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens to the Monopoly game after public outcry that the female lead character wasn’t put in. Rey is played by Daisy Ridley in the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise, where she is trained to use the force and fight against the dark side.
The toy company says that the reason the Rey character wasn’t put in the original release of the Star Wars Monopoly game was because it came out months prior to the new movie’s release, and they didn’t want to cause any spoilers. The version of Star Wars Monopoly that didn’t have the Rey character came out in September but the movie didn’t open in theaters until December 18.
Her character was also not amongst a set of action figures for a Millennium Falcon playset. Fans noticing all of these omissions started voicing their displeasure via the hashtag #WheresRey and #WhereIsRey.
The company has since tweeted and put out on Facebook that she would be added later this year to the game when it is reissued.
New Rey products to be released in more than Star Wars Monopoly
More products involving Rey are planned to be put out now that the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie is out. These will include toys like a six-inch and a 12-inch Rey action figure. The toy company says that they are elated that Rey is so popular and plan to find other ways to highlight her character in their products.
The current version of the Monopoly game has the characters of Finn, Kylo Ren, and old favorites like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
Speculation abounds on reasons for omission of Rey character
Some fans weren’t sure that the real reason for Hasbro’s omission of the Rey character was due to not wanting to spoil the plot of the movie.
Instead, they speculated that Hasbro may not have thought a female character would end up as popular as Rey apparently has and thought they would lose money.However, it appears that Hasbro could have underestimated today’s fans and women in general, so now they are having to stock the toy shelves with various Rey toy products, and are adding her character to the next release of the game later this year.
