Star Wars Black Series Greedo

Greedo has three seconds of screen time in A New Hope and has generated decades of debate. He’s the Rodian bounty hunter in the Mos Eisley Cantina who corners Han Solo over an outstanding debt to Jabba — and whether Han shoots first or Greedo shoots first depends on which version of the film you’re watching. The Black Series has given him three figures, none of which cover a new film appearance, because Greedo’s collecting significance has always been about toy history as much as screen time. Two of the three releases are deliberate tributes to classic action figure lines, making this one of the more unusual character pages in the line.

Greedo in Star Wars

Greedo is Rodian — the green-skinned, multifaceted-eyed bounty hunter species native to Rodia, whose cultural association with hunting made them natural candidates for the galaxy’s mercenary networks. His specific appearance in A New Hope is brief: he sits across from Han in a cantina booth, delivers a threat on behalf of Jabba the Hutt, and doesn’t leave the conversation. His death is one of the most contested moments in the franchise’s history.

The original 1977 theatrical cut shows Han shooting first — a preemptive move that establishes him as someone who survives by acting before the other person can. The 1997 Special Edition altered this so that Greedo fires first and misses at point-blank range, which changed the reading of Han’s character significantly and generated a fan reaction that has never quite died down. Various subsequent versions have tried different approaches. The debate is genuinely about what the edit says about Han Solo, not about Greedo himself — he’s the figure whose fate defines the scene’s meaning.

As a design, the Rodian is one of the Original Trilogy’s more distinctive aliens — the goggle-like multifaceted eyes, the green scales, the snout, the antenna structures. It’s a creature design that reads clearly as predator-adjacent, which suits a bounty hunter, and it’s been one of the more consistently well-reproduced alien designs across the Black Series’ production history.

The Orange Wave Figure

The Phase 1 Orange Wave Greedo from 2013 is one of the line’s launch figures — among the first twelve characters the Black Series produced, pre-Photo Real, representing the line’s original commitment to the ANH cast. As an alien figure the production era gap matters less than for human characters, and the Rodian design translates reasonably well at the older production quality. It’s been superseded for display purposes by the 50th Anniversary releases but remains a collector landmark as a founding-era figure.

The 50th Anniversary Tributes

Both 2021 50th Anniversary Greedo figures are tributes to earlier action figure lines rather than new character configurations. This is unusual in the Black Series — most re-releases cover the same character at improved quality, but these exist specifically to reference the toy lines that preceded the modern collector format.

The Greedo (Kenner) Amazon exclusive packages the character in a tribute to the 1978 Kenner action figure line — the original Star Wars toys that made Greedo culturally significant for a generation of collectors before they knew anything about Han shooting first. The Kenner figure was widespread in the late 1970s and early 1980s, one of the more distinctive aliens in a line that introduced millions of children to the idea that background characters were worth owning. The 50th Anniversary tribute acknowledges that history directly, packaging the modern figure in a way that references the original.

The Greedo (POTF2) Hasbro Pulse exclusive pays tribute to the Power of the Force 2 line from the mid-1990s — the collector-focused Kenner/Hasbro line that preceded the Black Series and introduced the modern era of Star Wars collecting. POTF2 is culturally significant for collectors who came to the hobby in that era, and producing a tribute figure is an acknowledgement that the Black Series inherits from what came before it.

Which to Buy

For the Mos Eisley Cantina display, any of the three works — Greedo’s design is consistent across releases, and the alien face printing gap between eras is minimal. The 50th Anniversary versions are the more recent productions and the better display figures on technical merit.

The choice between the Kenner and POTF2 tributes comes down to which collecting era resonates personally. Both cover the same character; the packaging context is the meaningful difference. If neither of those eras is part of your collecting history, the 2013 Orange Wave original is the most accessible option on secondary markets.

Greedo and the Han Shoots First Debate

It’s worth addressing the edit history directly because it affects how you think about the figure. The original theatrical cut has Han shooting Greedo without warning — a cold, pragmatic move that establishes Han as someone operating entirely on survival instinct. The Special Edition reversal softened that, making Han reactive rather than proactive. George Lucas argued the change was always the intent; audiences largely disagreed, and the fan attachment to the original characterisation has been consistent for decades.

Greedo’s figure doesn’t take a side in this — he’s the same sculpt regardless — but the Mos Eisley Cantina display he belongs in is the setting of that specific debate, and knowing it gives the figure more context than its screen time alone would suggest.

All Greedo Figures in the Black Series

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

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Characters. Related: Rodian | Mos Eisley | Cantina Confrontation | Han Solo.