Ewok

Ewoks are Star Wars’ most contested species — small, furry, armed with sticks and stones, and directly responsible for the defeat of the Empire’s Endor garrison in Return of the Jedi. The debate about whether their involvement in the decisive battle of the galactic civil war is dramatically credible has been running since 1983 and has never fully resolved. What’s uncontested is that the Black Series has committed to them thoroughly: six figures covering named characters, anonymous warriors, and holiday editions, making the Ewok one of the more extensively covered alien species in the line relative to its total screen time.

Ewoks in Star Wars

Ewoks are the indigenous inhabitants of Endor’s forest moon — small, bipedal, covered in fur, communicating in a language that C-3PO is apparently fluent in, and organised in tribal communities whose technology is pre-industrial but whose knowledge of the Endor forest is comprehensive. When the Empire chose Endor’s moon as the location of the Death Star’s shield generator, they chose a world already occupied by a species that had been living in those trees for generations and knew every trap site, every sightline, and every advantage the terrain offered against a ground force that didn’t.

The Ewok controversy is fundamentally a question of dramatic credibility versus thematic coherence. The credibility argument is straightforward: stone-age warriors with wooden catapults and vine traps shouldn’t be able to defeat professional soldiers with blasters, AT-STs, and military training. The thematic argument is equally straightforward: the Rebellion has always been the underdog defeating a larger, better-equipped force through determination, adaptability, and fighting on home ground rather than the enemy’s terms. The Ewoks are doing in miniature what the Rebellion does at scale. The forest moon battle is the Rebellion’s thesis statement made literal.

George Lucas drew explicitly on the Vietnam War as an influence — specifically the idea of a technologically inferior indigenous force defeating a vastly more powerful occupying military. The Ewoks carry that specific weight, and whether that lands as satisfying allegory or unsatisfying fantasy depends entirely on how much you’re willing to credit the thematic argument over the tactical one.

What’s harder to dismiss is that Return of the Jedi’s ground battle is more tactically complex than its critics tend to acknowledge. The AT-ST is a real threat. The Imperials nearly hold the bunker. The battle turns multiple times before the Ewoks’ forest knowledge begins to tell, and the humans are directing the tactical decisions. The Ewoks provide numbers, terrain advantage, and distraction — not the kind of impossible martial superiority that the criticism sometimes implies.

Wicket W. Warrick

Wicket is the only Ewok with sustained characterisation across Return of the Jedi — the scout who finds Leia after her speeder bike crash, who decides to trust her, whose decision to bring her to the village creates the alliance that the film’s ground battle depends on. His relationship with Leia is brief but functional: they communicate through gesture and tone before C-3PO can translate, and something about Wicket’s specific curiosity and Leia’s evident trustworthiness bridges the gap.

Two Wicket figures exist in the Black Series — the Galaxy Collection ROTJ release as Wicket W. Warrick, and the 40th Anniversary ROTJ version as Wicket. Both cover the same character in the same film; the 40th Anniversary release is the more recent production. For collectors choosing between them, the 40th Anniversary wave context makes it the stronger shelf piece — produced alongside the full ROTJ anniversary cast rather than as a standalone.

Teebo and Paploo

Teebo is a secondary Ewok character — present in the village sequences, identifiable by his feathered headdress, a member of the Ewok council that debates whether to cook the Rebels or ally with them. His ROTJ Galaxy Collection figure is the most detailed Teebo release in the Black Series and the one that captures the specific headdress and design that distinguish him from generic Ewok warriors.

Paploo is the Ewok responsible for one of Return of the Jedi’s more specific tactical incidents — he steals an Imperial speeder bike as a distraction, drawing away most of the guards and enabling Han’s team to approach the bunker. It’s a minor beat with significant consequences, and his 40th Anniversary figure is a specific acknowledgement of that moment rather than a generic Ewok inclusion. The fact that the line produced a figure for a character defined by a single speeder bike theft says something about how seriously the 40th Anniversary wave took the Endor ground battle’s secondary cast.

The Holiday Ewoks

The Holiday Edition Ewok and the Valentine’s Day Edition Ewok are the line’s novelty Ewok releases — seasonal figures that use the Ewok’s visual warmth and cultural associations to produce gift-oriented collectibles. The Holiday Ewok in particular leans into the specific cosy-alien quality that makes the species so divisive as warriors and so effective as merchandise: small, furry, enormous eyes, the kind of design that reads as inherently gentle and approachable regardless of what the character is doing in the film.

For collectors building the Shield Bunker Assault display, the holiday figures are a tonal mismatch with the battle context. For collectors who enjoy the line’s seasonal releases or who want to represent the Ewok’s non-combat identity, they’re the most character-specific holiday figures the programme has produced.

The Ewok Display

The four named Ewok figures — Wicket W. Warrick, Wicket (40th), Teebo, and Paploo — give the Endor ground battle display its indigenous perspective. Alongside the Rebel Commando and the Endor configurations of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie, they complete the strike team plus allies arrangement that the Shield Bunker Assault display requires. At 6-inch scale their small size relative to the human figures is accurate to the films and creates visual variety on the shelf that larger alien species can’t provide.

All Ewok 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: Shield Bunker Assault | Rebel Briefing Room | Species Index.