When “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opened last December and it quickly became apparent it was going to be a monster hit, merchandisers were caught in an unfortunate situation that was largely of their own making. The film’s lead character and one of the franchise’s new favorites, Daisy Ridley‘s Rey, was absent from many of the tie-in toys and products for the film. This didn’t go unnoticed by fans, and so petitions and hashtag protests were launched and various think pieces written, but this time around, toymakers promise the mistake will not be repeated.
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Hasbro has made it clear that Felicity Jones‘ character Jyn Erso will be featured prominently in all the new products to be associated with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (fyi, ‘Rogue One’ toys go one sale starting on September 30th), and unlike last year when it was purported that young boys couldn’t handle playing with a female action figure, things will be much different this time.
“Young boys will embrace the female hero in a way they wouldn’t have 30 or 40 years ago,” said toy industry consultant Chris Byrne to Ad Age.” Today’s boys will actually look at a female hero and say, ‘Yeah, she can be powerful.’ Their masculinity is not threatened.”
Last year, some of the blame for the lack of Rey merchandise was shifted onto Disney and Lucasfilm, who didn’t help toymakers by keeping the plot of “The Force Awakens” so secret. I’m pretty sure everyone surmised the importance of Rey long before the film opened, but this year it has been made clear that Jyn Erso is the new film’s main protagonist, so everyone is prepared to make sure she is the central focus in merchandise.
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opens on December 16th. [via io9]
