Pau'an

Pau’ans are one of Star Wars’ most visually striking alien species — tall, gaunt, heavily lined faces, pale skin, and a physical bearing that communicates age and authority simultaneously. They’re native to Utapau, the sinkhole world where Obi-Wan Kenobi kills General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith, and they’re a species defined in the franchise’s recent productions by their overrepresentation in the Inquisitorius — the Emperor’s Force-sensitive hunters. The Black Series has given them two figures, both connected to the Inquisitor identity: the Grand Inquisitor from the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and the Halloween Edition Inquisitor figure, making the Pau’an entry one of the line’s most thematically focused species pages.

Pau’ans in Star Wars

Pau’ans are native to Utapau — a world of enormous sinkholes whose walled cities descend vertically into the planet’s crust rather than spreading across a surface. The species’ physical adaptation to this environment gives them their characteristic features: the deeply lined, almost gaunt faces that suggest significant age, the pale complexion suited to the lower light levels of the sinkhole cities, and the tall stature that carries the particular kind of presence that comes with long-lived species who move with deliberate precision.

Pau’ans are notably long-lived compared to most humanoids — their lifespan is measured in centuries rather than decades, which gives them a relationship with history, patience, and long-term thinking that shorter-lived species tend to lack. This makes them naturally suited to roles that require sustained commitment: administration, scholarship, and in the case of the franchise’s most prominent Pau’an, the hunting of Force sensitives across a galaxy in the service of an Emperor whose plan itself took decades to execute.

Their relationship with the dark side is not universal — Utapau’s population wasn’t recruited en masse into the Inquisitorius — but the Grand Inquisitor’s Pau’an identity is not incidental. The species’ combination of physical menace, longevity, and the particular patience of beings who have lived long enough to take the very long view makes them compelling dark side practitioners in the Star Wars visual vocabulary.

The Grand Inquisitor

The Grand Inquisitor is the Inquisitorius’ leader — the highest-ranking of the Emperor’s Force-sensitive hunters, the Pau’an who commands the organisation responsible for tracking down and eliminating Jedi survivors in the post-Order 66 galaxy. His history predates his Inquisitor role: he was a Jedi Temple Guard before the fall of the Order, one of the anonymous masked warriors whose duty was internal enforcement within the Temple itself. The specific trajectory from Temple Guardian to Inquisitor — from protecting the Order to hunting its survivors — is one of the more psychologically interesting origin stories in the Inquisitorius mythology.

His Rebels appearance is his primary canon presence — four seasons of antagonism against the Ghost crew, with a complicated narrative relationship to his own death and survival. Obi-Wan Kenobi places him earlier, before Rebels, in the period when the Inquisitorius is operating at full deployment against a galaxy that still has surviving Jedi in it.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi Galaxy Collection Grand Inquisitor figure is the definitive Black Series version — the live-action production design at modern quality standards, capturing the specific Pau’an features that make him immediately recognisable. The tall, gaunt physicality that works in animation translates directly to live-action because the Pau’an design is inherently theatrical: a face that looks designed for villainy regardless of production format.

His narrative function in Obi-Wan Kenobi is more complicated than it first appears. He’s apparently killed by Reva partway through the series, then reappears — a continuity issue the show addresses by implying he survived rather than by explaining it fully. For viewers who know his Rebels appearances, his survival is expected; the show relies on that foreknowledge rather than earning the reveal on its own terms.

Pau’ans and the Inquisitorius

The Grand Inquisitor’s Pau’an identity connects the species to the broader Inquisitorius display — the post-Order 66 dark side hunters whose figures span the Obi-Wan vs Vader Rematch scene and the Maul: Shadow Lord sub-line. He’s the organisation’s commanding figure, and his specific Pau’an aesthetic — distinct from the human Inquisitors like Reva and the various numbered sisters and brothers — gives the Inquisitorius its visual diversity.

The species’ longevity is relevant to his command role in ways the franchise doesn’t explicitly state: a Pau’an Inquisitor has potentially been alive long enough to remember the Jedi Order in its full operation, which gives his hunter’s knowledge a different quality than a younger practitioner’s.

The Halloween Inquisitor

The Halloween Edition figure — an Inquisitor and Duros Bounty Hunter two-pack — is the Pau’an species’ seasonal release, pairing an anonymous Inquisitor figure with a bounty hunter in holiday packaging. The Inquisitor in this set is Pau’an in species, connecting the figure to the same visual tradition as the Grand Inquisitor without being a named character release.

The Halloween Edition’s existence reflects how effectively the Pau’an design maps onto horror-adjacent aesthetics — the gaunt face, the dark side association, the hunting role — in the same way the Dathomir Witch Halloween figure uses Nightsister aesthetics. The design does the seasonal work without requiring any modification.

All Pau’an 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: Obi-Wan vs Vader Rematch | Duel With Ahsoka | Maul: Shadow Lord | Species Index.