Hasbro Announces Plans to Add Rey to its Force Awakens Monopoly Game

By Abbey White  |  January 7, 2016 | 10:31am
Photo via Getty Images, Laura Cavanaugh
Video Games News

It seems pretty weird that a board game featuring North America’s top grossing film of all time wouldn’t include the movie’s main character, but that’s exactly what Hasbro did.

After the multinational toy and board games company released the special edition version of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Monopoly, people began to notice that one of the story’s main characters was absent. That main character also happened to be its female lead Rey, played by actress Daisy Ridley.

The toymaker has since reneged on its decision and announced yesterday plans to add Rey, the film’s central lead and Force-sensitive, to the movie-themed game, which already allows players to select key characters like Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Finn, and Kylo Ren. Including the likes of Luke was particularly head-scratching, given his low profile in the film.

Hasbro’s choice to exclude Rey first made headlines after a mother tweeted a letter written by her eight-year-old daughter asking, “How could you leave out Rey?!”

The tweet got quite a response, but really garnered attention after Hasbro’s initial statement. The company argued that due to the game’s release in September, Rey’s absence was an attempt to avoid spoiling her involvement in the key plot of her taking on Kylo Ren and joining the Rebel Alliance.

The reasoning wasn’t good enough for many fans, igniting the #WheresRey hashtag. The fandom’s overwhelming response ended in Hasbro announcing, also over Twitter, that Rey would be added to the game coming out later this year.

Hasbro still has not announced any plans to add Rey to the Millennium Falcon toy set, which the title character is also absent from.

 
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