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> “I’ve spoken with Disney people, and they were completely blindsided by the reaction to the new Star Wars characters,” he tells Boehm. “They put a huge invest

> “I’ve spoken with Disney people, and they were completely blindsided by the reaction to the new Star Wars characters,” he tells Boehm. “They put a huge investment into marketing and merchandizing the Kylo Ren character. They presumed he would be the big breakout role from the film. They were completely surprised when it was Rey everyone identified with and wanted to see more of.” ...they thought everyone would identify with the whiny, emo bad guy?

fpgeek 11y ago
They thought everyone would go nuts over the guy with the mask. They didn't understand that the mask was only a small part of what made Darth Vader such an amazing character.
- a3n 11y ago
  Generals always fight the previous war.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
pyre 11y ago
It doesn't really make much sense. Even if the toys were only bought for boys, and even if they strongly wanted Kylo Ren characters, there are many significant interactions between Rey and Kylo Ren in the movie. Why would they not want to be re-enacting those?
stupidcar 11y ago
It might seem insane, but from the limited and prejudiced perspective of these Disney executives, it makes sense. They won't be Star Wars fans, or consumers of their own company's output in general. They'll be business people, who are probably privately ignorant or contemptuous of Star Wars and science fiction in general as an art form, and who think of it only as a franchise from which the maximum profit should be extracted. Their conception of the Star Wars fanbase will be based on the worst cliches you can imagine — a homogenous mass of awkward, nerdy, unsophisticated adolescent white boys and young adults — and be informed by a crude and cynical view of marketing psychology. Basically, they have no intuition whatsoever for what Star Wars fans want or think, so will fill in the gap in their knowledge by assuming the very worst. All the above leads the executives to believe that the nerdy white boys who are dumb enough love this Star Wars crap cannot and will not identify with any character except the one who most resembles themselves. A moody, caucasian man-child with a cool mask and superpowers? How could they not love him? Any objections about him being a rather unsympathetic villain will be waved away as so much noise. “After all, Vader was a villain or something, and we sell a shit-ton of merch with his face on it, right?” To these same execs, the characters of Finn and Rey won't be viewed as anything other than a bone thrown to potential black and female fans. A way of expanding the franchise's appeal beyond its typical demographic. But they will still look at that homogenous mass of white nerds and say “These losers are the target of our marketing and merchandising efforts, and they will never identify with a female character, or buy merchandise containing one. We don't need to prove this, because we're top execs and our success demonstrates that our intuition is correct.”
- detaro 11y ago
  I think an important part is that the typical "profitable" Star Wars fan isn't a kid anymore: they are in their late 20s to 40s. Probably white and male. Now with enough disposable income to buy a lot of stuff, and kids they'll take to the new film and buy toys for. But what appeals to them isn't necessarily what appeals to kids, and while the parents pay for the toys, the kids pick the toys. Their market research might have indicated that this is what the typical Star Wars fan wants (or maybe wanted a few years ago, due to changing perspectives in the past decade that weren't apparent during the last rush), but they aren't selling toys to the people that are already Star Wars fans. (Toys as in kids' toys, not "Collectibles")

fpgeek 11y ago

They thought everyone would go nuts over the guy with the mask. They didn't understand that the mask was only a small part of what made Darth Vader such an amazing character.

a3n 11y ago
Generals always fight the previous war.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

pyre 11y ago

It doesn't really make much sense. Even if the toys were only bought for boys, and even if they strongly wanted Kylo Ren characters, there are many significant interactions between Rey and Kylo Ren in the movie. Why would they not want to be re-enacting those?

stupidcar 11y ago

It might seem insane, but from the limited and prejudiced perspective of these Disney executives, it makes sense. They won't be Star Wars fans, or consumers of their own company's output in general. They'll be business people, who are probably privately ignorant or contemptuous of Star Wars and science fiction in general as an art form, and who think of it only as a franchise from which the maximum profit should be extracted. Their conception of the Star Wars fanbase will be based on the worst cliches you can imagine — a homogenous mass of awkward, nerdy, unsophisticated adolescent white boys and young adults — and be informed by a crude and cynical view of marketing psychology. Basically, they have no intuition whatsoever for what Star Wars fans want or think, so will fill in the gap in their knowledge by assuming the very worst. All the above leads the executives to believe that the nerdy white boys who are dumb enough love this Star Wars crap cannot and will not identify with any character except the one who most resembles themselves. A moody, caucasian man-child with a cool mask and superpowers? How could they not love him? Any objections about him being a rather unsympathetic villain will be waved away as so much noise. “After all, Vader was a villain or something, and we sell a shit-ton of merch with his face on it, right?” To these same execs, the characters of Finn and Rey won't be viewed as anything other than a bone thrown to potential black and female fans. A way of expanding the franchise's appeal beyond its typical demographic. But they will still look at that homogenous mass of white nerds and say “These losers are the target of our marketing and merchandising efforts, and they will never identify with a female character, or buy merchandise containing one. We don't need to prove this, because we're top execs and our success demonstrates that our intuition is correct.”

detaro 11y ago
I think an important part is that the typical "profitable" Star Wars fan isn't a kid anymore: they are in their late 20s to 40s. Probably white and male. Now with enough disposable income to buy a lot of stuff, and kids they'll take to the new film and buy toys for. But what appeals to them isn't necessarily what appeals to kids, and while the parents pay for the toys, the kids pick the toys. Their market research might have indicated that this is what the typical Star Wars fan wants (or maybe wanted a few years ago, due to changing perspectives in the past decade that weren't apparent during the last rush), but they aren't selling toys to the people that are already Star Wars fans. (Toys as in kids' toys, not "Collectibles")