About three months before the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, Lucasfilm unleashed Force Friday to coordinate the worldwide release of Force Awakens merchandise onto the world of adoring Star Wars fans. And after the event’s massive success, Lucasfilm is bringing it back to ring in the merchandise for The Last Jedi.
Lucasfilm announced its plans for Force Friday II (as the event is being dubbed) on the official Star Wars website Thursday morning. Mark your calendars: Force Friday II will start on Sept. 1, 2017 at 12:01am.
Details surrounding Force Friday II are being kept under wraps for now, but it will include stores around the world along with a weekend celebration.
“The first Star Wars Force Friday event was truly unique, uniting fans across five continents in an unprecedented global live unboxing event ahead of thousands of midnight openings at retail,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. “We’re excited to confirm that Star Wars Force Friday is back for The Last Jedi. Plans for this year’s worldwide event are top secret, but expect something befitting the excitement around the next episode of the Star Wars saga.”
We also don’t have any information on what kind of merchandise will be released, but Lucasfilm did release the design for the packaging of some of the toys that will become available on Force Friday, giving us our first look at pretty much anything from The Last Jedi since the original production announcement video.
Lucasfilm/Disney
Rey, who was excluded of some of the Force Awakens merchandise for reasons varying from avoiding spoilers to outdated and sexist ideas about what kind of toys fans want, is front and center with her lightsaber (which originally belong to Luke Skywalker) in hand—and will hopefully be included in more merchandise this time around. Finn and Poe Dameron appear on either side fo her, and Rey’s signature hair loops are gone. Instead, her hair appears to be partially tied up while it rests on her shoulders.
Lucasfilm promises to expand on existing products like Sphero’s BB-8 device as well as new products. And if the original Force Friday is any indication, we’ll probably want all of it.