Yoda's Species — Star Wars Black Series Species Guide

Yoda’s species is the most famous unnamed species in science fiction. After nearly fifty years and two major characters, Lucasfilm has never officially named them — a decision maintained through the introduction of Grogu in The Mandalorian, through The Acolyte’s High Republic-era members of the species, and through every reference publication and canon source that has addressed the question. The Black Series has given the species six figures covering both known members: Yoda across four configurations, and Grogu in two releases. Together they represent the full extent of the species’ screen presence and the franchise’s sustained commitment to keeping one of its most beloved mysteries intact.

The Unnamed Species

The decision not to name Yoda’s species is not an oversight. George Lucas was asked about it repeatedly and declined to answer. Lucasfilm has maintained that position through every subsequent production, explicitly confirming that the species has no official name in Canon. When The Mandalorian introduced Grogu — the second member of the species to receive significant screen time in live-action — the production team confirmed that the unnamed status would be maintained, and that Grogu’s species would be referred to as “Yoda’s species” in all official materials.

This is a deliberate creative choice that serves the characters. Naming the species would require explaining the homeworld, the culture, the history, the political context. It would attach Yoda and Grogu to a people in ways that would answer questions the franchise has found more valuable as unanswered. Yoda’s authority in the Jedi Order is partly mystical — he’s the oldest, the wisest, the one who has been there the longest, and his origins remain appropriately obscure. Grogu’s appeal is partly the mystery of what he is, where he came from, why he survived Order 66, who sent him to the Jedi Temple. Answering the species question starts answering those questions by implication.

The practical effect is that the species’ two known members carry their entire species identity themselves. There’s no broader cultural context to invoke, no homeworld to reference, no history of the people they come from. They’re individuals in a way that most Star Wars characters aren’t — defined entirely by who they are rather than partly by what they are.

Yoda

Yoda is the species’ original representative and one of the franchise’s most significant characters — the Jedi Grand Master whose nine hundred years of existence make him the oldest living character in the main saga’s timeline and whose specific combination of physical smallness and absolute authority is one of Star Wars’ most deliberate visual inversions.

The Blue Wave Phase 2 Yoda from 2014 is the line’s original — the ESB configuration at the production quality of the founding era. Pre-Photo Real, but as an alien character the production gap is less visible than for human figures.

The Dagobah Yoda from the 40th Anniversary ESB wave is the modern production version — the hut, the specific Dagobah configuration, the exile-period Yoda at current Galaxy Collection quality. The Dagobah configuration is Yoda at his most apparently diminished and his most genuinely powerful: the sequence where he first appears to Luke is deliberately misleading about what he is, and the figure captures the specific look of that misdirection.

The Force Spirit Yoda from the 40th Anniversary ROTJ wave is the translucent blue Ghost treatment — the character’s post-death configuration, present at the Ewok village celebration that closes the Original Trilogy. The Force Spirit visual is the Black Series’ most immediately distinctive figure type, and the ROTJ wave production them consistently, making the Force Spirit Yoda the natural companion to the Obi-Wan and Anakin Force Spirit figures in the Throne Room Duel display.

The Yoda and Clone Commander Gree two-pack from the Clones of the Republic programme is the most scene-specific Yoda release — the Kashyyyk Order 66 moment, Yoda and the commander who tries to kill him, designed as a display pairing rather than individual figures. Gree holds the unique distinction of being one of the few characters in the line produced specifically to die next to another figure.

Grogu

Grogu is the Black Series’ most culturally significant figure release of the Disney era — the character whose debut in The Mandalorian generated the most sustained popular response to any Star Wars character since the Original Trilogy. The Child / Grogu Credit Collection Target exclusive was the first Black Series Grogu release, produced in the floating pram configuration that defined the character’s early visual identity.

The standalone Grogu from the Mandalorian sub-line mainline covers the character in his primary configuration — without the pram, figures him as the physically active participant in Din Djarin’s story that later seasons developed. At 6-inch scale the character’s physical size — significantly smaller than any other humanoid figure in the line — creates display challenges and display opportunities simultaneously: he reads immediately as the baby of whatever scene he’s placed in, which is accurate to his narrative function.

Together the two Grogu figures document the character’s transition from mysterious infant to active participant, and their presence alongside the Yoda figures makes the species display the line’s most complete single-species narrative arc: a Grand Master, his Force Spirit, a wartime moment, and the foundling who carries the species into its next chapter.

All Yoda’s Species Figures in the Black Series

6 figures

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