Star Wars Black Series Expanded Universe Display

The Expanded Universe display is the Black Series’ most eclectic category — a collection of characters from comics, Legends novels, video game tie-ins, Star Wars Visions, and publishing lines that operate parallel to the mainline film and television continuity. It’s not a scene in the conventional sense. It’s a display home for figures that don’t fit neatly anywhere else, and over time it has become one of the most interesting corners of the line.

What the Expanded Universe Means in Black Series Terms

The Black Series has always maintained a current-canon focus — new figures tied to current Disney+ series, recent films, ongoing animated productions. The expanded universe figures represent a deliberate acknowledgement that the collector base includes people whose Star Wars relationship predates Disney’s acquisition, for whom Mara Jade and Darth Revan and the Thrawn Trilogy are as central as anything on screen.

The 50th Anniversary wave in 2021-2023 is where the commitment became most explicit. Rather than producing standard anniversary versions of film characters, Hasbro used the 50th Anniversary sub-line to produce comic book interpretations of familiar characters and deep-cut expanded universe figures that would otherwise have no production rationale. Carnor Jax, Jaxxon, Sergeant Kreel, SCAR Trooper Mic — these are figures for a specific, knowledgeable audience. They exist because Hasbro was willing to bet that audience would respond.

The Legends Figures

Mara Jade Skywalker is the Legends continuity’s most significant female character — the Emperor’s Hand turned Luke Skywalker’s wife, whose story spans Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and decades of subsequent material. Her Red Line release from 2017 was a Fan’s Choice result, which tells you everything about the depth of affection for the character. The 50th Anniversary Mara Jade (Comic) from 2023 provides a second configuration in the comic art style.

Darth Revan is the player character of Knights of the Old Republic — the Sith Lord whose identity is the game’s central twist, whose dual lightsabers and mask design became one of the most recognised in Star Wars. His Red Line release from 2016 and his Archive reissue together represent the character across multiple production eras. The Archive Darth Revan remains the cleanest version for modern display purposes.

Jaina Solo — Han and Leia’s daughter in the Legends continuity, a Jedi Knight who becomes the most capable swordfighter of her generation — was produced in the Red Line era in 2017. She’s a figure whose Legends context has become more complex since Disney’s acquisition made her continuity non-canonical, but the character’s significance to the generation who grew up with those novels means her figure carries weight regardless of canon status.

Doctor Aphra

Doctor Aphra occupies an unusual position in the expanded universe display — she’s a current-canon character, appearing in Marvel’s ongoing Star Wars comics, but she operates entirely in publishing rather than on screen. The Black Series has produced her in multiple configurations: the original Red Line release, the Entertainment Earth Deluxe set with BT-1 and 0-0-0, and the 50th Anniversary comic version. Her droids — the homicidal protocol droid Triple Zero and the assassin astromech BT-1, inverted dark mirror versions of C-3PO and R2-D2 — are among the line’s more mordantly funny accessory inclusions.

Aphra’s arc in the comics — a morally flexible archaeologist navigating a galaxy where being on the wrong side of everyone’s interests is basically a lifestyle — has made her one of the most popular Star Wars characters introduced in the Disney era despite having no film or TV presence. Her figures reflect that popularity.

Shadows of the Empire

Prince Xizor and Dash Rendar from the 2025 Shadows of the Empire sub-line represent a specific moment in Star Wars history — the 1996 multimedia project that told a story set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi across a novel, comic series, video game, and soundtrack before the prequel films existed.

Shadows of the Empire was Lucasfilm’s experiment in whether Star Wars could sustain a release without a film. The answer was a qualified yes — the project sold well and demonstrated the franchise’s expanded universe viability. Xizor, the Falleen crime lord whose Black Sun organisation rivals Jabba’s power in the criminal underworld, and Dash Rendar, the Han Solo surrogate who covers Han’s absence in carbonite, are the project’s two defining original characters. Their Black Series releases are the first significant Shadows of the Empire plastic representation in decades.

The Maul: Shadow Lord Sub-Line

The 2026 Maul: Shadow Lord sub-line is the most ambitious single publishing tie-in the Black Series has produced — four figures from a single comic storyline covering Maul, his Mandalorian lieutenant Rook Kast, the Inquisitor known as the Eleventh Brother, and Devon Izara. The sub-line signals a meaningful commitment to publishing-first characters that goes beyond the occasional fan-choice inclusion.

The Tartakovsky Clone Wars and Visions

The 50th Anniversary Tartakovsky Clone Wars figures — the ARC Trooper, General Grievous, and Mace Windu in the distinctive visual style of Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2003 micro-series — represent an animation tradition that predates The Clone Wars CGI series and has a dedicated audience among collectors who grew up with it. The hyper-stylised Grievous in particular is one of the more visually striking figures in the 50th Anniversary wave.

The Star Wars Visions figures — The Ronin from “The Duel” and Jedi Master Dooku from “The Elder” — represent a different kind of expanded universe: Disney-era anthology animation that operates in its own distinct aesthetic traditions. Both sit naturally in the expanded universe display as figures that exist outside the main continuity by design.

The Kenner Tribute Figures

Several 50th Anniversary figures in this display — the Kenner and POTF2 tribute versions of Greedo, Han Solo, Jawa, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia — are tribute versions of main characters rather than EU characters, produced in colour schemes and configurations that reference the original Kenner toy line. They belong in this display because there’s no better home for them — they’re not scene-specific and they’re not the canonical versions of those characters. For collectors with a connection to the original Kenner era, they’re a specific and deliberate nod. For others, they’re curiosities.

All Figures for This Display

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

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Scenes. Related: Gaming Greats Display | Legends Era | Collector Guide.