Star Wars Monopoly finally includes Rey in the US

Rey has finally been included in Star Wars Monopoly sets in the US, nearly two years after the game was first released.

It originally only came with four male characters and no females.

The campaign to get Rey included started in 2015, when an eight-year-old girl wrote an open letter to the company behind it.

But despite Hasbro agreeing to the change in 2016, it’s taken until now for Rey’s “character token” to appear.

When it was released in September 2015, the only figures that came with the board game were Finn, Kylo Ren, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

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At the time Hasbro said they didn’t include Rey – the main character from The Force Awakens – because they didn’t want to ruin “a key plot line” in the film, which wasn’t out yet.

But they faced pressure from fans – including eight-year-old Annie Rose, who posted a handwritten letter on Twitter.

8 yr old asks, How could you leave out Rey in SW Monopoly? @LetToysBeToys@HasbroNews @PigtailPals #WheresReypic.twitter.com/EnOs56PQE5

— Carrie Goldman (@CarrieMGoldman) January 4, 2016

So, in January 2016, the company relented.
.@CarrieMGoldman @JillPantozzi @Epbotpic.twitter.com/IQ5TNbOygW

— Hasbro (@HasbroNews) January 6, 2016
But despite this promise, last week fans were still waiting.

According to The New York Times, a Hasbro spokesman said this was because retailers in some markets “already had adequate inventory of the original version of the 2015 game, so they opted not to take in additional inventory of the new version”.

She added that the updated version of the game was sold in “several markets around the world but [was] not available for sale in the US due to insufficient interest”.

And this prompted a response from Bad Robot – the production company owned by Star Wars director J.J. Abrams.

pic.twitter.com/LcTub9Hmcn
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) July 14, 2017
Now Hasbro has updated its website to announce that a version of the game – complete with Rey – will be available in the US on July 25.

But listings in the UK still state that the game only comes with four “character tokens”.

Newsbeat has contacted Hasbro for comment and awaits a response.

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