During the Star Wars Panel at Hasbro Pulse Con 2024, the first Star Wars Black Series from Shadows of the Empire was revealed as Prince Xizor. The Galaxy Collection packaging for Xizor showed a new colour scheme which was described as a Publishing Series and the blurb with Xizor on Hasbro Pulse for pre-order also mentioned further Shadows of the Empire figures incoming including Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Dash Rendar.
So how deep can we expect Hasbro to go here?
Shadows of the Empire was a multi-media program in 1996 that aimed to create a Star Wars storyline between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It included comic book and video game content and was supported by a small run of figures within the Kenner Power of the Force 2 figures.
If we look back at the figures from 1996 we can already tick Xizor off the list. At the time Leia's release was simply a repack of her in her Boushh disguise - Hasbro may repeat this with the Black Series or could bring us a new Leia using one of her SOTE looks from the comics.
For Luke, his POTF2 release was a brand new figure of him in an Imperial Guard disguise - and that is a tantalising possibility for the Black Series - although a tweaked variant of an existing Luke is more likely. This will probably end up being the vest element from Yavin Ceremony Luke on top of the Jedi Knight Luke base figure.
Dash Rendar would be an entirely new figure and his look is pretty much fixed across all the SOTE content with the key question of how they would create his likeness to fit in with the 'real world' setting of the Star Wars Black Series.
So out of the original five SOTE single-release figures, the only gap not referenced anywhere as yet within the Black Series listings is Chewbacca as Snoova - a figure that would perhaps need a new head for the Chewbacca mold plus a selection of armoured panels and accessories as we saw with Krrsantan.
But could there be more? With 2026 being the 30th Anniversary of Shadows and Hasbro liking their exclusive cardbacks we could perhaps see the Comic Book 2-packs revisited in the Black Series with Darth Vader vs Xizor and Boba Fett vs IG-88 both doable from the existing Black Series lineup.
Slightly more challenging would be the Swoop and Swoop Pilot.
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About Me : As a child of the '70s and '80s I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force), and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licenses - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who, and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK-focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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