It was only in May 2022 that I first got into Star Wars. I know what you’re thinking, how on Earth did it take me so long, especially with all the new streaming series that have been released over the last few years? It’s something I ask myself often too. But back in May, my partner of a few months asked me if I would like to watch Star Wars with him, and my answer was ‘of course!’. His knowledge of all things Star Wars is encyclopaedic, and I was so excited that he wanted to share such an important part of his life with me. A few months down the line, I’ve well and truly fallen down the rabbit hole, and have even delved into the world of Star Wars novels. This list of fiction podcasts that I would recommend to other fans of stories set in galaxy far, far away, is inspired by a list I compiled for my partner, of podcasts I thought he would enjoy.
Chain of Being
Cai Gwilym Pritchard
Chain of Being is a mythical sci-fi podcast, which takes religious elements and places them in an extensive futuristic universe. Adam from the Garden of Eden is immortal, in a universe where gods rule over mortals. While the story focuses on Adam and his journey, there are several intriguing depictions of the dangers of life in this universe, and the different peoples who inhabit it. It’s a very different story to anything depicted in Star Wars, even with the way the Jedi and the Force are depicted; but I included the podcast because of the depth of worldbuilding and lore within the story, and how the rich and extensive universe might appeal to those who love the expansive Star Wars galaxy. Also bonus points! Glyn Pritchard, who plays Ovig Nadal, appears in an episode of season one of Andor!
Copperheart
Michael J. Rigg
Ok, bear with me for a moment here. On the surface, a story about survivors of a world-wide nuclear ‘mishap’ living in underground bunkers doesn’t seem to have anything in common with any Star Wars media, until you look at one character in particular. One Engineer Dennis Pinarski. Pinarski is a huge Star Wars fan, reflecting creator Michael J. Rigg’s own love for the franchise. Set in an alternate 2015, Pinarksi is one of 2,208 people who live in US Reconstruction Bunker GL51, in Area 51, waiting out the end of nuclear winter. His memories and experiences of Star Wars become a key plot point, as reality begins to twist and bend inside the bunker.
Fan Wars: The Empire Claps Back
Shenee Howard
This romcom is the most obvious choice for any Star Wars fan, as it directly deals with the source material, and how two characters engage with it. Jackie and Steven meet on a Star Wars forum, where they both have some strong opinions about The Last Jedi, and their arguing continues over Skype after the forum shuts down. The story provides an examination of fandom and how fans engage with the stories that they love, with this show giving much-needed space to communities that are all too often overlooked in internet fandom – Jackie is a Black woman, and Steven is Chinese. Among all the bickering and trolling, there are also serious explorations of racism and sexism in fandom, and what it means to not have your voice heard.
InCo
ItMe!!
Imagine an even snarkier Han Solo who works for a shady-yet-tolerated galaxy-wide organisation, and you wouldn’t be a million miles away from Nova NoStar. Nova is an InCo, an Information Courier, whose job is to transport and sell information on her particular route between a series of planets. The story opens with her retrieving some very strange cargo, a prince floating in space – a prince from a planet which only exists in fairy tales and fantasy stories. There’s also the slightly Empire-like Galactic Union, which uses different ways to primarily wield its powers – after all, the price of information and who controls it is key to this story – over the 300 or so planets who belong to it.
Jupiter Saloon
Podcation
Have you ever wanted to visit another fictional bar which has the same vibes as Mos Eisley’s cantina? Well, Jupiter Saloon is the podcast for you. This sci-fi comedy is set in a popular dive bar on the planet of Jupiter, which counts bounty hunters and intergalactic wanderers as some of its regulars, as well as some more shady characters. Patrons can choose to settle their tab with stories as opposed to hard currency, and there are plenty of stories and legends to go round. There’s also Rover the robot, who is more than just a little bit similar to Star Wars’ droids, particularly R2-D2 in the way he speaks.
The Orphans
The Light and Tragic Company
First of all, Light and Tragic? Absolute genius, 10/10. There’s a lot I can’t mention about The Orphans so that I don’t spoil the end of the show’s first season, Crash, but trust me when I say that I highly recommend this podcast for Star Wars fans. Crash deals with the aftermath of a spaceship crash, where the survivors find themselves on an inhabited planet with no memory of anything that had happened previously in their lives. The vibes of Investigation (the third season to be released), aren’t that far removed from The Bad Batch or Rebels – especially when considering the (found) family aspects of all three – but the story at the core of the series is a very different one. The Orphans shares a lot of themes portrayed in various different Star Wars stories – one of the most notable being resistance, portrayed by the Alliance’s fight against the Collective. There are also some very interesting examinations of artificial intelligence and sentience, with GeoFFRy providing a fascinating and different representation to my beloved Star Wars droids.
The Pasithea Powder
Bad Wine Productions
How about a post-war story but Make It Queer? Estranged childhood friends Dr Jane Gonzalez and Captain Sophie Green had very different roles during an inter-planetary war, which involved the creation of the memory-altering Pasithea Powder. The story focuses on the very human cost of war for those who survived, primarily depicted through the voice messages Jane and Sophie leave each other, portraying the consequences and trauma that the war has had on their lives. In this story, good and bad aren’t so easily defined as with the light and dark sides of the Force, but this moral greyness is such a huge part of why the story is so compelling. I have to admit, what made me initially think of including The Pasithea Powder was an amazing piece of fanart of Sophie as Han Solo, by munchyart on Twitter.
The Strange Case of Starship Iris
Jessica Best
I chose to include Starship Iris in this list primarily because of how key the themes of resistance and rebellion are to its story. This story is also set against the backdrop of an interplanetary war, one that Earth won against extraterrestrials in 2189. Violet Liu is the only survivor of an explosion that destroys the Starship Iris, and she’s rescued by the Rumor – crewed by humans and a Dwarnian. Violet was a member of the Intergalactic Republic, while the crew of the Rumor are very much not fans. The story is initially framed as a series of transmissions intercepted and presented by IGR agents as part of a developing investigation into what happened to the Starship Iris, as well as the crew of the Rumor and their activities.
Windfall
Rogue Dialogue
When I saw the architecture of Coruscant in one scene towards the end of the final season of The Clone Wars, my reaction was, ‘hey, this reminds me of Windfall‘. The context here is different to the representation of Coruscant’s politicians and wealthy living on the planet’s upper levels, but the same basic structure remains. In this sci-fi story, the privileged live high up in the city’s towers, with a representation of the common people’s lives in the city’s ground levels right from the show’s opening. Windfall City lives under the rule of Queen Wanda, whose castle appeared in the sky over Proxima one day, and her Wolfpac. Even though this invading force is depicted in a very different way to the Empire, there are definitely some parallels that can be drawn, especially in the way that Queen Wanda exercises her power over the people.
A Sky Full of Pods 