Where is Rey?: The male monopoly on Monopoly
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in anger because Rey was nowhere to be seen."
Fans were quick to point out that the new Star Wars Monopoly by Hasbro has a large problem: Rey is not a player token. The game includes only four tokens, an oddly small amount for a normal game of Monopoly. Players can be Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, and Finn. Rey is nowhere to be seen.
.@JillPantozzi .@Epbot 8 yr old asks Hasbro, How could you leave out Rey in SW Monopoly?! #WheresRey pic.twitter.com/PGMzJWWrhy
— Carrie Goldman (@CarrieMGoldman) January 4, 2016
Hasbro tried to explain that including Rey in the Monopoly would spoiled the yet to be released movie. But, Rey appears on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer without spoiling a single thing. Unless playing the game calls for scenes straight from the movie, this is not a viable excuse.
The exclusion of main female characters in merchandise is sadly a too common occurrence. Let us not forget that it took three games before we got a Female Commander Shepard to show her face in marketing campaigns.
In fact, this is not the first time that the Star Wars Monopoly has excluded a female character. Old editions of Star Wars Monopoly have an absence of Leia Organa, and only one edition has Padme Amidala in the ranks. Try and explain that off as spoilers.
With angered people all over the internet, Hasbro was quick to promise to include Rey in a future edition of Star Wars: Monopoly.
Hasbro was not the only company in the crossfire for the question "Where is Rey?" Disney promised that they will have an influx of Rey merchandise in January.
For their own sake, let's hope they keep this promise.
KendraG
Geeky gamer with a BA in Anthropology who liked playing Shadows of Mordor for the insight into Orc/Uruk hai society.
Source theguardian.com
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In the trailers they did a misdirection with Finn. It wasn't as big as the Mandarin in IM3. Has to doesn't have the greatest time advertising. For instance, if you watch the commercial for the Millennium Falcon has a spoiler in it but you have to think about it. Also, Hasbro is slow to change but they will fix it. I get the letter from the girl, she has a great point. Leaving Rey out won't be a spoiler, the item she acquired would be. Hasbro could leave that out but that could be a different controversy.
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I heard rumours that the reason they didn't include her is because they wanted to avoid spoilers. Considering Rey's role in the film, this doesn't surprise me. I mean if they had a bunch of toys with her holding a _____ then wouldn't it give away too much of the revelations in the film? It's the same reason they advertised Finn as the "jedi" in the trailers, imho. They also probably want to capitalize on Rey's role more than printing toys that are just what we see of her in the ads, but maybe I'm just thinking too far into it.
Aside: Am I the only person on Earth that feels like the 8 year old's letter feels forged? I mean, I've never seen a kid write with those thought patterns, or add their own age at the bottom. Also, the spelling is a little too perfect for words that are on the list of "most commonly misspelled words". But hey, that's just me. -
There was actually a huge kerfluffle before the movie was released because an image of a Rey toy was leaked. It was Rey with a certain object, therefore giving away a large part of the story.
Also, this game was most likely in production and ready before the movie was released. I imagine they would make Rey merchandise and include her in Monopoly after the general public was able to see the movie. -
1. I love that little girl's letter. Too good.
2. Seriously, how the hell did they think including Rey would be a spoiler but including Finn wouldn't be? -
Exactly my thoughts!
