Episode 100: From the Adventures of Alan Dean Foster

Force Material: A Star Wars Podcast

For our 100th episode, we interview the man who introduced the world to Star Wars way back in November of 1976 – the one and only Alan Dean Foster.
Alan Dean Foster ghostwrote Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, the original novelisation of Star Wars, released six months before the film and a month before the first teaser. It was Foster’s prose that introduced the world to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO, R2-D2, Governor Tarkin, Emperor Palpatine, the Jedi, the Sith and more.

He went on to write the first Star Wars novel with an original storyline, 1978’s Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, before returning to the franchise for a prequel-era novel, 2002’s The Approaching Storm, and the much-hyped novelisation of The Force Awakens in 2015.

He’s a storyteller, a world traveller and an athlete – he’s got more than 100 books to his name, as well as a world record in powerlifting, and he even studied karate with Chuck Norris!

In this episode’s wide-ranging discussion, we talk to Alan Dean Foster about:

• Ghostwriting the original Star Wars novelisation for George Lucas
• The one question he asked George while writing the novelisation, and George’s answer
• The influence of Scrooge McDuck on George Lucas
• The evolution of Darth Vader and the Empire
• Building the Expanded Universe on a budget in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye
• The intriguing differences between The Force Awakens script that he novelised and the finished film
• His backstory for the Journal of the Whills
• His alternative take on Episode IX
• His must-do travel recommendations
• His rejected Batman script
• How home video has changed the business of novelisations
• Breaking a powerlifting world record and studying karate with Chuck Norris
• Where he thinks Star Wars should go next
• And much more!

Force Material is a podcast exploring the secrets and source material of Star Wars with hosts Rohan Williams and Baz McAlister. Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, PlayerFM and Castro; stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; and support the show by browsing our range of shirts, hoodies, kids apparel, mugs and more at TeePublic.