Star Wars Black Series Starkiller

Starkiller is the Black Series’ most significant pre-Disney gaming character — Galen Marek, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, whose status in the current Canon is deliberately ambiguous and whose collector following has remained consistent since the game’s release in 2008. Three figures cover him across the Walmart original, the Gaming Greats Photo Real update, and the dark side Lord Starkiller variant.

Starkiller in Star Wars

Galen Marek is human — a Jedi child discovered by Darth Vader after Order 66, raised in secret as Vader’s personal apprentice, and designated Starkiller as his codename. The Force Unleashed places him in the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope — the era that the Inquisitors and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series now also occupy — and his story involves the formation of the Rebel Alliance, which the game presents as a Vader-engineered operation to draw out the Emperor’s enemies.

The game’s Canon status is complicated. The original The Force Unleashed was considered Legends material when Disney reset the expanded universe in 2014, meaning Galen Marek and Starkiller are not officially part of the current Canon. The Black Series has continued to produce figures for the character regardless, acknowledging both the game’s enduring commercial importance and the collector demand that persists for a character whose games sold over 15 million copies before the Canon reset.

His specific gameplay identity — aggressive Force power usage, dual-lightsaber configurations, the Force repulse and lightning as primary combat tools — gave the character a distinctive action figure presence even when translated to the static figure format. The Black Series figures capture the specific visual of the character’s Jedi-trained-by-Sith aesthetic: not quite Sith in design, not quite Jedi, carrying the visual signature of someone trained in the wrong tradition by the wrong master.

The game had two endings: the redemption arc where Galen sacrifices himself to save the Rebel leaders, and the dark side ending where he becomes Lord Starkiller and serves the Emperor. Both narrative paths have Black Series figures, giving collectors the choice between the two canonical versions of the character’s fate — or both.

The Walmart Original

The Walmart exclusive Starkiller from 2019 is the first Black Series treatment of the character — a Red Line era release predating the Gaming Greats sub-line’s formal structure. Pre-Photo Real, Walmart exclusive distribution, the line’s first commitment to the Force Unleashed protagonist. It was the figure that confirmed the Black Series would cover Legends-era gaming characters, and collector response was strong enough to justify the subsequent Gaming Greats updates.

The Gaming Greats Update

The Gaming Greats GG 26 Starkiller (The Force Unleashed) from 2024 is the definitive version — Photo Real production at current Gaming Greats standards, the GameStop exclusive sub-line treatment for the character at updated quality. The Photo Real improvement on a gaming character works differently than on a film character: there’s no actor’s likeness to replicate, so the face printing is working from the game’s character model rendered photographically rather than from human photography. The result is the most accurate Black Series representation of how Starkiller actually looks in the game.

For the Gaming Greats Display, the 2024 update is the recommended figure — current production quality, the standard that the sub-line operates at post-Photo Real, matched to the other recent Gaming Greats releases.

Lord Starkiller

The Gaming Greats GG 30 Lord Starkiller Fan Channel exclusive covers the dark side ending configuration — Starkiller in the full dark side aesthetic, the red lightsaber, the costume of the character who chose the Emperor’s service over redemption. It’s a fundamentally different display choice from the standard figure: not just a variant but a different ending to the same story.

For collectors who want both endings represented, the standard Gaming Greats figure and Lord Starkiller together create a display that shows the game’s central choice in physical form — the two possible versions of the same person’s fate, visible simultaneously. The canonical ambiguity of the Legends status means neither ending is “more real” than the other, which is an interesting collector position for a character whose continuity is deliberately unresolved.

The Gaming Legacy

Starkiller’s presence in the Black Series across three releases — spanning 2019, 2024, and 2026 — is evidence that collector demand for pre-Disney Legends gaming characters remains significant enough to sustain production. He’s in the line alongside Cal Kestis and the Battlefront II gaming tie-ins, occupying a distinct position as a Legends-era character who is clearly beloved enough to keep receiving new production even without current Canon status.

For collectors who care about The Force Unleashed as part of their Star Wars, the 2024 Gaming Greats update is the essential figure. The Lord Starkiller variant is the completionist addition for those who want the full story covered.

The two-figure display — standard Starkiller and Lord Starkiller side by side — is genuinely unusual in the Black Series. Most character pages don’t have a situation where both figures represent the same person’s diverging fate depending on player choice. It’s the only display in the line that makes a direct reference to video game decision-making mechanics as a collecting argument, and for fans of the game it carries specific meaning that no other character range in the line replicates.

All Starkiller Figures in the Black Series

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

---

Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Characters. Related: Human | Gaming Greats Display | Cal Kestis | Darth Vader.