After facing public outcry for excluding Daisy Ridley’s female lead in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” from the classic board game, Hasbro has chose to include her in the latest edition of Star Wars: Monopoly.
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Last week fans noticed that the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Monopoly set didn’t include the movie’s main character, Rey.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens just beat out box office hog James Cameron’s Avatar to become the highest-grossing film of all time in North America, which is a big deal given that the film’s two leads are a woman and a black man. But it’s hard to tell when you take a look at the bestselling film’s merchandise. “And without her, the bad guys would’ve won!”
The 8-year-old says girls and boys “need to see women can be as strong as men” in her letter to Hasbro.
Players can use one of four pieces in the game, all male characters from the franchise – Finn, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren.
“Rey was not included to avoid revealing a key plot line that she takes on Kylo Ren”, Hasbro wrote back to one disgruntled fan on Twitter. Hasbro responded in a tweet.
The game is the latest in official merchandise that has drawn ire for prioritising less-prominent male characters over Rey.
But after such a frenzy, Hasbro has made a running change to the game.
“We were surprised and happy that Hasbro was engaging in the dialogue with us”, said Goldman, who has been something of a “Star Wars” and diversity activist over the past few years, along with her children.
Annie Rose’s mom, HuffPost blogger Carrie Goldman, shared the letter on Twitter, where it was retweeted over 2,200 times.
The tweet caught the attention of Hasbro, who announced Rey will be added to the Monopoly game and available later this year.
Goldman said she had nothing to do with her 8-year-old’s decision to write to Hasbro, and that Annie Rose’s response to Rey’s omission from the board game came from a place of passion for gender equality.
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Fans said Rey featured heavily in the film’s posters and trailer, and plot points could have been avoided by featuring her with her staff rather than a lightsaber.
