The Planet Leia journey has been one of the highlights of my Star Wars fandom. When I was invited to join Fantha Tracks over five years ago by Mark, Matt and Brian to give the site a female perspective, I jumped at the chance and to quote Leia herself I do believe I said “General, count me in” and immediately accepted. ‘Fantha Mum’ is a job I take very seriously!
Having been an early Star Wars fan from the 70’s (yes, I’m that old …) I was unaware that there was minimal representation of women in the saga. Back in the 70’s and 80’s that really didn’t matter to me. I had my friends in school, we played Star Wars together, we went to each others’ houses with our figures and toys and watched the films. Life was good.
Cut to many years later and I became aware of things that maybe as a child, you didn’t notice. What was missing for me was a European POV, and it was important to me to represent Star Wars from this certain point of view as it is so different to those who are Stateside.
So how do you decide the name for a Star Wars female podcast? It needed to be a unique yet recognisable name, and thank the Force the name Planet Leia was decided – it was perfect.
The podcast itself has evolved over the years to it’s current format, with myself and co-host Johanna at the helm. We decided the podcast needed to have a regular format and a female centric talking point each episode, and with that in mind we relaunched the podcast after the many lockdowns and we’ve never look back!
Every six weeks, I look forward to sitting down over Zoom to talk Star Wars with Johanna. We’ve known each other for many years, having been introduced by my ‘Star Wars husband’, my best friend since I was four years old and fellow Fantha Tracker Andrew Walker. I’m an Original Trilogy fan and she’s a Prequel fan. (I do forgive her for that). She’s a cosplayer; I can’t sew at all so I buy my clothes. She’s into the Expanded Universe and looks for every detail; I learn from her. That’s what makes us work and why we love talking Star Wars together. We each have our own strengths, and we recognise that and respect it.
When it was announced that Star Wars Celebration was to be held in London, it was our opportunity to get together as we hadn’t made it to Celebration Anaheim. We were very excited to be back together again in person. Then the Holonet News Stages were announced, and with the support of Fantha Tracks we decided to put an application forward for a podcast slot focusing on the Women of Return of the Jedi. I still remember getting the message from Johanna, saying that we’d been successful. I was absolutely over the moon.
Planning mode kicked in, but with one major mistake. We’d submitted for the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi, not the 40th – not my finest hour I have to admit! Damn, you, AutoCorrect.
The weekend arrived and I met Johanna at Will Call, picking up where we left off as we always do. It was a fantastic experience from start to finish. We walked the show floor together, watched panels and most importantly spent time with our Star Wars friends and family. We’d been allocated a tricky slot, the last podcast in Room 17 on the last day of Celebration Europe. From all the advertising, it was clear that the day had not been sold out with it being a Bank Holiday. We knew it was going to be a tough gig, but we were optimistic and up for the challenge.
We did our final run through sat on the floor in front of Room 17. At this point no one was queueing, it was just me, Johanna and Mark. The previous podcast had finished and as we walked over to Room 17 there were a couple of people waiting and we thanked them for coming, relieved that at least we’d be talking to a couple of Star Wars fans and not just our family and fellow Fantha Trackers.
Our tech run went well, and we were ready to go. My daughter was prepared with Planet Leia badges to give out to the people who came. We expected and hoped for about 10; the doors opened and people came in, and then more and more as the seats began to fill up. We were overwhelmed with the support and love for our little podcast.
It was standing room only when Planet Leia began, and what a rollercoaster we had. Many confessions, tall tales and an in-depth look into the many women who were (or not as the case may be) in Return of the Jedi. It was so much fun to have a live audience who were with us from start to finish – it was simply magical.
Then just like that our time was up. It was so lovely to talk to everyone who stayed behind at the end and share our love of Star Wars. Johanna and I are so thankful to every single one of you who came to listen and support us and our podcast. To quote Leia again, this time from The Empire Strikes Back, “You have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them.”
For Johanna and I, this was one of the very best moments. We hope that you’ll spread the Fantha Tracks and Planet Leia love! What you saw is what you get in our podcast, two women from different eras of Star Wars, talking together with one commonality…Star Wars. We hope that people subscribe and every few weeks have Johanna and I in your ears talking about the galaxy far, far away from the female point of view, but for now let us sign off.
“We love you…you know.”
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