Star Wars director calls out toy companies for disregarding lead female character
During a conference today for the Television Critics Association, J.J. Abrams criticized the lack of representation for Rey, Star Wars: The Force Awakens' lead female character, in recent merchandising.
“I will say that it seems preposterous and wrong that the main character of the movie is not well represented in what is clearly a huge piece of the Star Warsworld in terms of merchandizing,” Abrams said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
Read more: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ tops ‘Avatar’ as No. 1 film of all time in North America
Concerns about unfair representation first arose with the release of the Monopoly board game adaptation of The Force Awakens. In the first release, the only player options were Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren and Finn. Hasbro has now promised to include Rey in the updated version of the game. Hasbro assured that the decision was to avoid spoilers since the game came out before the movie.
Many fans have echoed the sentiment of Rey's underrepresentation, tweeting the hashtag #WhereIsRey in complaint of the franchise's merchandising.
“It doesn’t quite make sense why she wouldn’t be there. She’s somewhat important in the story,” said Abrams in EW's report.
Watch more:
