Human

Humans are the dominant species in the Star Wars Black Series — the largest category by figure count, the category most affected by production quality improvements over the line’s history, and the category where the Photo Real face printing technology that changed the line in 2019 had its most significant impact. The human figure is both the line’s most common product and its most technically demanding: alien characters are sculpted, but human likenesses require accuracy to real faces, which is why the gap between pre- and post-Photo Real human figures is the most visible quality divide in the entire Black Series.

Humans in Star Wars

Humans are the most widespread species in the Star Wars galaxy, present in every era, every faction, and every social tier. This is partly a production reality — a franchise built on live-action film uses human actors as its primary cast — and partly a deliberate worldbuilding choice that reflects the galactic human-centric political structures the saga examines. The Republic, the Empire, and the First Order are all human-dominated institutions in their command structures, which is the context that makes species like the Chiss, the Togruta, and the Mirialan significant when they appear in those institutions.

The franchise’s relationship with its human characters has changed significantly across its production history. The Original Trilogy’s humans are archetypes — the hero, the rogue, the princess, the villain, the mentor. The prequel trilogy complicated those archetypes and examined the institutions that produce them. The Disney era’s productions have increasingly diversified the human cast while also using non-human characters in roles that the earlier films would have given humans. The Black Series reflects all of this: the human figure roster is the most complete cross-section of Star Wars’ full character history that exists in a single format.

The Scale of the Human Category

492 figures is a number that requires context. The next largest species category in the Black Series is the droid, at around 57 figures — human figures outnumber the entire rest of the line combined. This reflects the franchise’s casting realities, but it also reflects something specific about collector demand: human characters with recognisable faces attached to named roles in beloved films drive sales in ways that alien species figures, however well-designed, generally don’t.

The human figures break down across the line’s major factions: Empire figures dominate numerically, reflecting the stormtrooper army-building tradition that has been the line’s most sustained collector behaviour since its first wave. Rebel figures cover the resistance, the Alliance, and the broader anti-Imperial networks across the saga. Jedi figures span the prequel, Original Trilogy, and sequel eras. The Mandalorian faction has its own significant cluster reflecting the line’s post-Disney investment in that corner of the universe.

Photo Real and the Human Figure

The Photo Real face printing technology introduced around 2019 is the single most significant production quality event in Black Series history, and its impact is almost entirely felt in the human figure category. Alien characters — sculpted, non-referential to real faces — don’t benefit from Photo Real in the same way. Human characters — whose likenesses reference real actors — benefit enormously.

Pre-Photo Real human figures vary significantly in face printing quality. The best of them — certain Hasbro Pulse exclusives and carefully produced Red Line releases — achieved reasonable likeness accuracy. The average pre-Photo Real human figure, however, carries the flat, slightly unfocused face printing that makes the early waves of the line feel dated compared to current production. For most human characters, the Galaxy Collection version is unambiguously the display recommendation over any earlier release.

The practical implication for collectors is that updating a human-heavy display to modern standards means identifying which figures have received Galaxy Collection re-releases and prioritising those over their Red Line or Blue Wave counterparts. The Phases Explained guide covers this in detail, but the general rule is simple: if a human character has a 2019 or later mainline release, that’s the version your display wants.

The Imperial Human

The Empire’s 99 human figures represent the most army-built category in the line. Stormtroopers, officers, pilots, specialists, and commanders — the Imperial military’s human component covers every rank and operational role the saga depicts. The Death Star Corridors scene is the most direct expression of this: a display that exists to collect Imperial human variants in their natural environment.

The evolution of the Imperial aesthetic across the line is visible in the human figures. Original Trilogy Imperials have the clean white-and-grey visual language of the classic design. Rogue One’s Death Troopers and Shoretroopers brought darker, more tactical visual variants. The Mandalorian-era Imperial Remnant introduced weathered, battle-worn versions of familiar armour types. The sequel trilogy’s First Order produced sleeker, more polished reimaginings. Each of these aesthetic evolutions is documented in the human figure category.

The Jedi and Force Users

The 71 Jedi figures represent the saga’s most symbolically significant human characters — the Force-sensitive warriors whose story is the emotional through-line of the entire franchise. From the Original Trilogy’s Luke Skywalker to the prequel Council members to the Clone Wars generation to the sequel era’s struggle to rebuild, the Jedi human figures are the category where the Black Series most directly serves its core Star Wars collector audience.

The multiple configurations of major Jedi characters — Obi-Wan Kenobi across five or six releases covering different eras, Luke Skywalker across his TPM through ROTJ arc, Anakin Skywalker from TPM child to ROTS dark Jedi — are where the human figure category creates the most sophisticated display possibilities. Collecting a character across their complete configuration history is one of the Black Series’ most rewarding long-term projects, and humans are the characters whose histories the line has most thoroughly documented.

Building Within the Human Category

The human figure category is too large to approach as a completionist project. Most collectors engage with it through the scene and faction frameworks that the rest of the site provides — building the Death Star Corridors display, completing the Clone Wars roster, filling out the ROTJ 40th Anniversary wave. The human species page is the index for all of it.

All Human 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: Factions | Scenes | Photo Real Guide | Phases Explained.