Star Wars Black Series Emperor Palpatine — Every Figure Across All Eras

Emperor Palpatine has three Black Series figures covering two very different visual identities — the robed Emperor of the Original Trilogy and the prequel-era Sith Lord in his Darth Sidious configuration. They represent the same person at opposite ends of a plan that took decades to execute, and the Black Series treating them as distinct release contexts reflects the genuine design differences between Palpatine as the galaxy’s political leader and Palpatine as the secret Sith architect manipulating everything from behind.

Palpatine / Sidious in Star Wars

Palpatine is human — the Senator from Naboo who became Supreme Chancellor, then Emperor, the Sith Lord who spent decades constructing a political trap that would give him absolute power over a galaxy that trusted its institutions. His story across the prequel trilogy is the slow revelation of how completely he had manipulated everyone: the Trade Federation invasion was his plan, the Clone Wars were his plan, the Jedi Temple assault was his plan, and the emergency powers vote that made him Emperor was triggered by a crisis he manufactured.

The specific genius of the character — and of Ian McDiarmid’s performance across both trilogies — is that Palpatine as a politician is plausible. The Prequels make the case that a sufficiently patient and capable actor operating within legitimate institutions can hollow them out from the inside without anyone noticing until it’s too late. The Senate votes for the Empire. They choose it. That’s the political argument the prequel trilogy is making, and Palpatine is the demonstration.

His Original Trilogy identity is the outcome of that plan completed — the Emperor in his throne room, surrounded by the machinery of absolute power, whose only remaining challenge is the Skywalker bloodline. The specific visual of the black robes, the yellowed eyes, the Force lightning — this is the Sith revealed, no longer requiring the Senator’s mask.

The two visual identities require different figures because they represent genuinely different presentations of the same person. The ROTS Darth Sidious wears the Sith robes of his private identity, glimpsed before the full reveal of Order 66. The ROTJ Emperor wears the public robes of Imperial power, the ruler whose Sith identity is known to his subordinates and irrelevant to everyone else.

The Blue Wave Figure

The original Blue Wave Emperor Palpatine from 2015 is the ROTJ configuration at pre-Photo Real production quality. It’s the first dedicated Black Series Palpatine and has been superseded for display purposes by the 40th Anniversary version, but it established the character in the line at a point when the ROTJ throne room display was otherwise quite sparse. As a collector item it represents the line’s first commitment to the Emperor at 6-inch scale.

The 40th Anniversary Emperor

The 40th Anniversary ROTJ The Emperor from 2023 is the definitive Original Trilogy Palpatine — Photo Real production at the quality of the ROTJ anniversary wave, the Kenner cardback packaging, and the specific throne room configuration that the ROTJ display requires. Ian McDiarmid’s likeness at current Black Series production standards is a significant improvement over the 2015 original, and the figure sits naturally alongside the ROTJ 40th Anniversary wave’s Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Emperor’s Royal Guard.

For the Throne Room Duel display, this is the required figure — the Emperor who orchestrates the throne room confrontation, who attempts to turn Luke, and who is eventually thrown into the reactor shaft by the Vader he thought he’d broken permanently.

The ROTS Darth Sidious

The Galaxy Collection ROTS Darth Sidious from 2024 is the prequel-era configuration — Palpatine in the Sith robes of his private identity, at the moment he issues Order 66 and completes the plan. The specific ROTS context places him at the war’s climactic turning point: the Supreme Chancellor becomes the Emperor in this film, and the figure captures the specific visual of that transition.

The ROTS Sidious includes Force lightning — the weapon that defines his combat presence in the prequel trilogy’s final act — and the Photo Real production gives McDiarmid’s prequel likeness the detail that the character requires. For the Order 66 and Mustafar Duel displays, this is the contextually accurate Palpatine — the Sith Lord executing his decades-long plan in the hours when it finally succeeds.

The Plan Across Both Figures

The most complete Palpatine display is both figures together — the ROTS Sidious and the ROTJ Emperor on the same shelf, the architect and the outcome. The prequel Sidious is still running the plan; the Original Trilogy Emperor is the plan completed. The face is the same, the Force lightning is the same, and everything else has been stripped away or elevated to its final form. Two figures from two different sub-lines, telling a single story about the most patient and most comprehensive act of political manipulation in the Star Wars galaxy.

For collectors who want to build across the complete saga, this specific pairing is one of the more satisfying two-figure displays the line makes possible. The ROTJ Emperor alongside the Force Spirits three-pack — Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin — creates the complete throne room resolution on a single shelf: the villain whose plan succeeded and the people whose sacrifice undid it. That’s the display argument that connects the Emperor character page to the Force Spirit releases, and it’s one only the ROTJ anniversary wave makes fully achievable.

All Emperor Palpatine Figures in the Black Series

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Check off the figures you own with the Black Series Checklist.