A new report details that Disney, Lucasfilm, and Star Wars are removing Rose Tico’s character from various Star Wars merchandise.
Twitter user Jenny Nicholson posted a lengthy thread detailing a number of Star Wars merchandise that sees Rose Tico’s character taken out of the final product.
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 @ Halloween (@JennyENicholson) October 4, 2019
Another example: artist’s original posted to his twitter, vs the version going on the Topps card pic.twitter.com/ZHRC4roSzQ
— Jenny Nicholson @ Halloween (@JennyENicholson) October 4, 2019
The version of the movie poster featuring Rose from leaked merch designs, vs the version of the poster ultimately going on shirts, trading cards, and tote bags pic.twitter.com/Av4RZqpUvJ
— Jenny Nicholson @ Halloween (@JennyENicholson) October 4, 2019
Another for the thread – product reveal livestream vs final product image. You guys. pic.twitter.com/PNzXEUJJ29
— Jenny Nicholson @ Halloween (@JennyENicholson) October 5, 2019
https://youtu.be/rOptO1dxZrI
YouTuber Salty Cracker speculates Rose Tico was removed from the merchandise because “where somebody who has some analytics they’ve got some metrics, and they understand we’ll sell more of these Rebel shirts if it’s got nobody on it as opposed to Rose Tico.”
He adds, “It’s the Disney executives saying, ‘We need to turn this around. We need to actually start making money. We need to start building this franchise up.'”
Salty Cracker continues, “You’ve finally got some people who are seeing blaring red sirens all over Disney tower going, “Holy shit! We’ve run this franchise off. This guaranteed cash-making, multi-billion dollar franchise right off a f****** cliff with our wokeness. And they are trying to stem that.”
Salty Cracker’s speculation makes sense. Disney confirmed their Star Wars merchandise sales were down.
Disney’s Q3 Financial Report reads:
“The increase at our consumer products business was due to growth at our merchandise licensing and retail businesses. Growth at merchandise licensing was primarily due to higher revenue from merchandise based on Toy Story, partially offset by a decrease from Star Wars merchandise. The increase at our retail business was due to higher comparable store sales and online revenue.”
In fact, Jedi Temple Archives reports:
“Star Wars merchandise sales have been declining ever since October 2016 (remember that Disney’s fiscal year ends in September). But not only merchandise seems to be affected, since Star Wars book sales and comic book sales are also down. So Star Wars as a whole seems to be in decline at the moment.”
It’s definitely possible, that some executives at Disney might have finally decided to try and address that decline now that Bob Iger appears to have already set sail with the release of his memoir a year before he’s expected to retire from the company.
What do you make of Rose Tico being removed from Star Wars merchandise? Do you think Rose Tico being on Star Wars merchandise cripples sales? Do you think Disney might actually be trying to rejuvenate the Star Wars franchise?