Daisy Ridley thought it was a "great moment" when fans complained they were not enough Rey toys for sale when ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ was released.
The 24-year-old British actress portrayed the heroine in the sci-fi sequel alongside John Boyega as Finn and Harrison Ford, who reprised his role as Han Solo from George Lucas’ original trilogy with all three characters integral to the story.
When the toy line was released by Hasbro under license from Disney – who bought the rights to the franchise from Lucasfilm – devotees were incandescent with rage over the lack of Rey action figures, despite a plethora of figurines of far less important characters from the galaxy far, far away.
Petitions were started and "Where’s Rey?" trended on social media and Hasbro explained that the lack of toys and merchandise – including her omission from a ‘Star Wars’-themed Monopoly board game – were to stop key plotlines from being spoiled before the release of J.J. Abrams’ movie last December.
Daisy is very thankful for all the support she received and admits she hadn’t really thought too much about getting a miniature likeness of her alter ego before the furore began.
In an interview with Collider.com, she said: "I think when it really became a big thing is when J.J. talked about Monopoly. There had been conversations long before that that I was having with people because I didn’t really understand what was going on. And John Boyega in fact told me that he had written to someone and I was like, ‘huh’ because he is more of a toy person than I am … I think it was well-intentioned, usually it’s boys that buy those kinds of toys. And I think it’s a great moment of what’s happening in the world with girls and how different people are playing and how they’re interacting with the things they see in popular culture. So yeah, it’s cool … My whole thing isn’t about the backlash, it’s if a character is important in the story, then that should be dealt with in every platform whether it’s merchandise, whether that’s posters, anything, it needs to be dealt with in the correct way regardless of gender, regardless of colour. So to be honest, how the public reacted to it was amazing, because it was a testament to the character and to what J.J. did with the casting."
Daisy recently had a meeting with executives about what is happening in terms of merchandise for her character for ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ and she is very excited about the items that are going to be hitting stores.
She said: "Interestingly, I had a meeting yesterday about merchandise and what’s happening going forward, so I had a lot of questions that were answered and some, you know, issues … I’ve been told what the plans is for next year and it’s really cool, really exciting."
Shooting on ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ – directed by Rian Johnson – has wrapped and the blockbuster is scheduled for release on December 15, 2017.
Daisy Ridley thrilled by Star Wars fans’ demands for Rey toys
