Expanding Star Wars Fandom: Interview with Dan Madsen

Star Wars fandom is probably the most loyal among many franchises. Nowadays, countless outlets—let it be podcasts, blogs, Instagram pages, fan art, you name it—have shared Star Wars content of all kinds, all connected to a deep love and appreciation for the galaxy far, far away. Ever since the very first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, fans around the globe dreamed of embarking on galactic adventures alongside iconic heroes and villains. For Dan Madsen, that seemingly unreachable wish came true, from fourteen-year-old super fan to contributing to the franchise (and many others) in extremely impactful ways. “I heard of Star Wars for the very first time at a Star Trek convention. The back cover of the program booklet had this ad for this new movie coming out called Star Wars. I remember after I came out of the theater I was so excited that I decided I was going to plaster the walls in my bedroom with Star Wars posters and build all the model kits and hang them from my ceiling. It wasn’t long after merchandising started hitting that my room looked like a shrine to Star Wars,” Dan Madsen shared in an interview with Tatooine Times.

Years after creating the official Star Trek Fan Club (with creator Gene Roddenberry’s blessing) in tandem with the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, Madsen’s work caught the eye of Howard Roffman from Lucasfilm Licensing who was looking to revive the Star Wars Fan Club—the platform being dormant since the end of the trilogy with Return of the Jedi since at the time George Lucas had no plans for new Star Wars movies. The club was relaunched as the Lucasfilm Fan Club since the focus of the entertainment company was directed towards the newest non-Star Wars movies—from Willow to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. During that time, Dan Madsen authored several interviews, sitting down with legendary movie stars of the caliber of Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Anthony Daniels. “It was around ten years later that I got word that George [Lucas] was actually starting to write the Star Wars prequels. I met with all of the Lucasfilm Licensing people, and we discussed changing the fan club from Lucasfilm back to Star Wars because now with the prequels coming down the line, you’re going to want to do a whole lot more coverage of that, and it would be more enticing to people to join the new official Star Wars Fan Club. So we did, and I came up with the new title of the magazine: Star Wars Insider,” Madsen said.

The official Star Wars Fan Club had the largest membership base that any fan club could have ever had at the time, with 180,000 members while selling over 500,000 copies of every issue of the Star Wars Insider from newsstands and bookstores. Along with the huge success of the club and its magazine, Dan Madsen scored some incredible Star Wars interviews, including several with none other than the man himself, George Lucas. “There are many times when I had to pinch myself, like the first time for instance that I flew out to Skywalker Ranch and interviewed George Lucas. I remember going to the main house up these beautiful stairs to the magnificent mahogany-lined walls of his office, with original paintings by Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish,” Madsen recalled. “I was sitting on a couch by a bay window next to him and remember thinking, ‘Man, I don’t think my fourteen-year-old self could have ever imagined that I would be at Skywalker Ranch interviewing George Lucas, asking him any question I wanted about Star Wars’. It was a fan’s dream come true.”

Dan Madsen’s incredible journey did not stop there, and if being able to interview your childhood heroes wasn’t enough, then getting a cameo appearance in a Star Wars movie was without a doubt on every fan’s bucket list. Madsen recalled being invited out on set of The Phantom Menace in Leavesden Studios outside of London to cover the filming for Star Wars Insider. Little did he know that he would be in the middle of the Naboo parade celebrations as the Kaadu Handler, later named Dams Denna. “My job was to run out into the middle of the street and grab the reins of the beast that Jar Jar Binks was riding on. As you can imagine, I had no idea what the Kaadu looked like at that point, so I’m reaching up to something invisible just imagining a cross between a dinosaur and a chicken and surrounded by all the Gungans in the parade which were just guys in white jumpsuits because they were all going to be replaced with CG characters. It wasn’t quite as glorious as it is in the movie because there’s lots of effects, creatures and things that are added in after the fact, but you’re still on the set with everything happening and George Lucas behind the camera. It was a magical experience that I’ll never forget; I really will never forget.”

The prequels marked the return of Star Wars on the big screen and along with it an awakening of the fandom—with the old and new generation of fans coming together to share what would be for many a lifetime love for the franchise. In 1999, exactly two weeks before the opening of The Phantom Menace, the first Star Wars Celebration took place in Denver, Colorado. Created and produced by Dan Madsen in collaboration with Steve Sansweet (at the time the Director of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm) and Anthony Daniels, the official Star Wars convention had a homegrown feel—and despite the improvised location (Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum) and the worst rain in one hundred years of Denver history, the magic of Celebration inspired its attendees and started a tradition that is still cherished by fans all over the globe. The prequel-focused convention gave fans an exclusive first look at The Phantom Menace, along with showcasing new Hasbro merchandise and a chance to meet some of the cast and crew who worked on the movie. “Fortunately, Anthony, Steve, and I managed to make it happen, and as Rick McCallum, Producer on the prequels told me, ‘Man, this is going to be remembered as Star Wars Woodstock. Fans will remember years later that they went to the first Celebration in the rain and the mud and survived.’ It was a cool experience, and I’m glad I only had to do one because it was a lot of work [laughs],” Madsen said.

Dan Madsen’s love for fandom led him to eventually join forces with actress and entrepreneur Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano) to launch Her Universe, a groundbreaking fangirl fashion company and lifestyle brand that to this day is a beacon of inspiration: “Ashley and her husband David are probably two of the finest people I have ever met in my life. I worked with her side by side for about eleven years before Hot Topic purchased the company. She is such a role model for anyone but especially young girls … a true Star Wars hero. She was so instrumental in building the fangirl movement at the time that Her Universe launched, and now it’s over 50% of the fan audience. Ashley should be credited with bringing so many young girls into not only Star Wars, but the sci-fi world.”

After an incredible fandom journey, Dan Madsen concluded the interview with words of wisdom for fans that have or are planning to create a Star Wars (or any other franchise) fan outlet: “Don’t hesitate to do it, don’t fear doing what it is you want to do, because you may never get a chance to do it again. So go out there and have faith that you can do what you want to do. You know, I started out doing what I did just as a fan. I never had any inclination that it would be a way for me to make a living. I was just putting out a little newsletter as a fan. The old saying, ‘If you do what you love, you won’t work a day of your life’ is pretty much true. ‘Follow your bliss’ is a term that George Lucas liked to use from Joseph Campbell. Whatever it is that you love, go after it, do it and don’t be afraid to fail because sometimes people fail and get back up again, and they are successful the next time.”

Make sure to stay up to date with Dan Madsen on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as he shares much more of his journey as a fan and contributor of Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and beyond.