Rose Tico's Erasure From The Rise of Skywalker Merchandise (and Why it Matters)

Kelly Marie Tran in a scene with Daisy Ridley. This remains Rose's only promotional image and, unlike those of her co-stars, it has yet to be released outside of the Star Wars Celebration livestream in April

It’s fair to say that anyone with a basic level of compassion agrees that the social media attacks on Kelly Marie Tran were abhorrent. The display of personal insults, sexism and blatant racism was disgusting, and made me feel embarrassed to be a Star Wars fan.

Kelly Marie Tran, overwhelmed at the display of love at the Episode IX panel at Star Wars Celebration on the 12th April 2019

Something that slightly restored my faith in the fans of Star Wars was the love shown towards Kelly Marie Tran at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year- including an extended standing ovation as soon as she walked onstage and powerful cheers of support that brought her to tears.

“I was grateful to Rian Johnson for so many things that he did in VIII. Although the greatest thing, for me, was him casting Kelly Marie” JJ Abrams, Director of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) in her only appearance in the three trailers for The Rise of Skywalker. Seen behind her are Lieutenant Connix (Billie Lourd) and a new character played by Dominic Monaghan

So now, after this rush of positivity, why is it that Rose Tico is being deliberately excluded from the marketing for Star Wars Episode IX? Beyond the brief shot in last night’s trailer, we haven’t seen anything of her in the promotional material. This could just be signifying her reduced role in Episode IX, which is understandable, considering the sheer number of characters this film has to deal with, as the conclusion the saga. But if Rose was never intended to have a large presence in the build-up to the film, why was she originally included in a lot of the merchandise?

A Rose-focussed t-shirt design from the initial product reveal compared to the final shirt that is available to buy

The release of the Episode IX merch line led fans to quickly notice that Rose had been removed from designs she was previously a part of. This observation proved that Lucasfilm were not simply neglecting to include Rose, but deliberately removing her. This sends a worrying message about Disney’s stance on the harassment Tran experienced: instead of fighting against it, it looks as though they have caved and decided to leave the character out of the spotlight to appease the bullies.

A "Heroes of the Resistance" design that originally featured Rose Tico on the left, before it was decided to replace her with empty space

Considering Tran’s statement that the bullying “confirmed what growing up as a woman of color already taught me: that I belong in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories”, I think it’s despicable that Lucasfilm’s marketing team would act in a way that seems to agree with this notion. To seemingly bend to the will of the worst possible Star Wars fans is cowardly and deserves to be criticised. Regardless of their reasons, it sends the message that acting like a racist, sexist child will pay off and get the characters you don’t like removed from the franchise.