Ardennian

Ardennians are one of Star Wars’ more distinctive alien species — four-armed, compact, physically capable across all limbs simultaneously, and culturally associated in the franchise with the kind of skilled, high-risk work that their biology makes unusually suited to. In the Black Series, Ardennians are represented by a single character from a single film: Rio Durant, the pilot of Tobias Beckett’s crew in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Two figures cover him, one standard and one Deluxe, making the Ardennian the species entry that shows what a thorough single-character treatment looks like in the line.

Ardennians in Star Wars

Ardennians are native to the planet Ardennion and are distinguished primarily by their four arms — two primary and two secondary, all fully functional, all independently usable. In a galaxy full of bipedal humanoids and various non-humanoid aliens, the Ardennian physical profile is immediately distinctive: shorter than most humans, with four limbs that give them an operational range in physical tasks that two-armed species simply can’t match.

The species has minimal narrative presence in the broader Star Wars canon beyond Rio Durant’s role in Solo. They’re the kind of alien that the franchise introduces through a single compelling character rather than through worldbuilding or cultural context — the viewer learns what Ardennians are capable of by watching Rio operate rather than through any explicit species history. This is actually the most common mode of alien introduction in Star Wars: a character is so specific and so visually interesting that the species becomes memorable entirely through that single representative.

What the film communicates about Ardennians through Rio is that they’re pilots — specifically the kind of pilot who thrives in chaotic, unstructured environments where formal training is less useful than instinct and adaptability. The four-armed configuration isn’t incidental. Rio’s ability to operate multiple ship systems simultaneously while doing other things is the practical advantage the species’ biology provides in exactly the context Solo puts him in.

Rio Durant in Solo: A Star Wars Story

Rio Durant is Tobias Beckett’s crew pilot — the Ardennian who has been flying for the operation long enough to be essential infrastructure. He flies the AT-Hauler in the Conveyex heist that opens the film’s criminal plot, and he dies in that same sequence when the mission goes wrong. His death is the first significant loss in a film about a heist crew that fractures under pressure, and it sets the tone for Solo’s approach to its supporting cast: competent, loyal, and not protected by the conventions of main character status.

The Conveyex heist is one of Solo’s most kinetic sequences — the stolen Imperial payload on a train crossing a mountain range in a blizzard, the crew attacking from above in the AT-Hauler, everything going wrong simultaneously. Rio’s role in it is both the most operationally central and the most exposed. He’s the one holding the vehicle in position while everyone else is hanging off a train. When he’s hit, the whole operation loses its anchor.

His relationship with Tobias Beckett — the veteran criminal mentor — communicates a history the film doesn’t have time to fully depict. Beckett’s crew feels like they’ve been doing this together for years, and Rio is the member whose absence from the second half of the film is most operationally felt. The AT-Hauler Deluxe release acknowledges this — it’s a figure that exists specifically to recreate Rio in his working context, cockpit section included.

The Black Series Figures

Two figures cover Rio Durant in the Black Series, both from the 2018 Red Line Solo wave.

The standard Rio Durant is the smaller of the two releases — the figure on foot, four arms fully articulated, capturing the specific physical design of the Ardennian in his operational gear. As a 6-inch scale alien figure, the four-arm configuration gives him an immediately unusual silhouette on a shelf — wider than a standard human figure, with a physical presence that communicates the species’ biology without needing any text explanation.

The Rio Durant with AT-Hauler Deluxe is the more display-specific release — Rio in the AT-Hauler cockpit section, the figure placed in the environmental context that defines his role in the film. It’s the kind of Deluxe release that works as a scene piece rather than a standalone figure: the AT-Hauler cockpit tells you exactly which sequence and which character you’re looking at. For collectors building the Kessel Run display, the Deluxe is the more contextually complete choice.

Both figures were produced in the Red Line era — pre-Photo Real — but as an alien character, Rio’s face printing technology gap is less significant than it would be for a human character. The Ardennian design is specific enough that the figure reads clearly regardless of production era.

Ardennians in the Wider Black Series Collection

The Ardennian entry in the species index is a single-character species — the line has produced one Ardennian character in two formats, both from the same film, both from the same production year. That concentration is specific to the Solo sub-line’s approach: the complete cast of a single film, produced together, covering every named character with a single release each.

For collectors using species as a collecting axis — building a shelf of alien species diversity across the Black Series — the Rio Durant figures represent the Ardennian entry point and, for now, the complete Ardennian collection. The species has not appeared in subsequent Star Wars productions with enough screen presence to generate further figures, making both Rio Durant releases the definitive Black Series representation of Ardennians.

The AT-Hauler Deluxe is the better shelf piece if you’re choosing one. The cockpit section adds physical scale and environmental context that the standard figure can’t provide, and it makes the Ardennian display a statement about Solo’s production design as much as a character representation.

All Ardennian 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 | Species Index. Related: Kessel Run | Human | Collector Guide.