It’s been a long wait for North American Star Wars: The Force Awakens fans who have been eagerly anticipating a copy of Star Wars Monopoly that features the film’s main protagonist, Rey, as a playable character token. It would seem that wait is finally over, though, as Hasbro has announced that a version of the game including Rey will finally be available for purchase in North America.
The saga of Rey in Star Wars Monopoly stretches back nearly two years, when the game was released sans the film’s main character. According to a recent interview with Hasbro, the game was designed without Rey as a playable character in an attempt to keep her role in the movie under wraps. After the film released, a new version of the board game was sent out to retailers, though not in America.
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This prompted a social media movement that was kicked off by 8-year-old Annie Rose Goldman’s letter imploring Hasbro to include Rey in the game. This sentiment would eventually be encapsulated in the Twitter tag #WheresRey. Hasbro eventually offered American Monopoly fans the opportunity to enjoy what European players already were in the form of a customer service line that could be called to request a Rey player token.
Rey’s absence in Star Wars Monopoly has lingered for over 18 months now, and while some fans were sated by the option to order their own Rey token, others still wanted answers. This led Hasbro spokeswoman Julie Duffy to clarify the reason for Rey’s absence in Star Wars Monopoly: a simple lack of demand. While the customer service line had been open, the toy company had only received only 99 requests for a Rey token from customers in the United States, and only 10 from Monopoly fans in Canada.
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It seems that the confusion is over now, though. Hasbro has created a special link where North American Monopoly players can order the entire Star Wars Monopoly game, Rey included. The game is currently set to release July 25, and though the listing initially said sales of the game were limited to one per household, that restriction has been lifted.
The next film Daisy Ridley’s Rey is set to star in is Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Debuting in theaters on December 15, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a production of Lucasfilm directed by Rian Johnson and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Andy Serkis, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)