Disney, the “Star Wars” franchise’s new intergalactic overlords, held its third annual “Force Friday” merchandising event. This time it was to hype up the upcoming “Rise of Skywalker” movie, “The Mandalorian” streaming series and the “Jedi: Fallen Order” video game. The merchandise haul was huge, but there was one glaring omission that reminded fans of a problem with the previous years’ merchandise events.
Anyone who has seen “The Last Jedi” will remember the character Rose Tico. She was a new face, but a major part of the movie. So, fans were ticked off to see that she was basically nonexistent in the marketing materials for “Rise of Skywalker,” and it reminded them of the erasure of the character Rey (the trilogy’s protagonist) from previous merchandise.
I remember #WheresRey around the first Force Friday, but what makes #WheresRose more insidious is all the evidence of where she was designed into merch and then willfully removed. The fan conduct toward Rose/KMT was shameful and catering to those fans sends the worst message pic.twitter.com/D85iLBghos
— Jenny Nicholson (@JennyENicholson) October 4, 2019
That whole thread dives into examples of original art versus the final merchandise designs where Rose is missing.
The artist, however, responded by saying that what some thought was final art was actual an early version, and at the time of publishing he was still waiting on reference material to put Rose’s face on it.
Don’t worry #wheresrose this is a very early version of the artwork where I was waiting on reference for Rose and others. At an amusement park today with my family but will update image tomorrow. 👍👍
— Brian Rood (@broodone) September 28, 2019
People are still annoyed that she’s slacking in action figure sets, some of which include more minor characters than Rose, who played a pretty vital role in “The Last Jedi” and probably will in the next flick, too.
Don’t worry #wheresrose this is a very early version of the artwork where I was waiting on reference for Rose and others. At an amusement park today with my family but will update image tomorrow. 👍👍
— Brian Rood (@broodone) September 28, 2019
Whether the lack of Rose was on purpose or not, it’s something that merchandisers need to be cognizant of when they’re working with such a large (and vocal) fan base. They will notice every mistake, even if it’s a mistake by omission. It’s incredibly difficult, maybe impossible, to please everyone. And the forces (heh) behind Star Wars know this better than just about anyone.
You’d think they’d be hyper(space)-careful about it after the Rey incident, but, here we are.
