Star Wars Insider to Launch Final Issue in 2026
The magazine, most recently produced by Titan Publishing Group, will cap its run with 237 issues in print.
www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-insider
'After more than 200 issues, Star Wars Insider will end its current run in 2026.
The official Star Wars magazine first launched under the Insider moniker in 1994, part of an evolution that began with the Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine.
But the earliest incarnation of the idea began in 1978 with the start of the Official Star Wars Fan Club. A newsletter in the membership kit was renamed Bantha Tracks after a contest in issue #2, and would mark its final edition in March of 1987 with issue #35 covering the new Star Tours ride.
The first glossy Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine debuted in the fall that same year, featuring C-3PO and R2-D2 on the cover with a cake decorated with 10 candles to mark the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope as well as Lucasfilm’s expansion into new stories beyond the galaxy far, far away.
Growing interest in Star Wars just seven short years later spurred the new name, Star Wars Insider, which debuted with the widely coveted “premier issue” #23 in 1994. During its lifetime, the logo would be redesigned, the license would change hands, and many editors and writers would bring their love for Star Wars to those printed pages.
“Insider has been a big part of my Star Wars experience for a very long time, both as a fan and professionally,” editor Christopher Cooper tells StarWars.com. "It’s been an honor to explore the galaxy far, far away with our readers during my eight year tenure. But publishing has changed immeasurably since the Lucasfilm Fan Club magazine, and we live in an increasingly digital age, which sadly means that this chapter in Star Wars Insider’s history is coming to an end.”
“I certainly share Christopher’s sentiments. Having served as editor-in-chief of Insider during the lead up to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in 2004 and 2005, and then to edit the magazine for the past 9 years for Lucasfilm Publishing has been the greatest privilege of my life,” adds senior editor Brett Rector. “To say the magazine occupies a huge place in my heart is an understatement.”
Star Wars Insider issue #237 will be the magazine’s last with Titan. “As we fly off into the twin sunsets, Titan intends to go out in a blaze of glory,” Cooper adds.
The next issue, #235, a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will arrive on newsstands December 9, 2025. There will also be printings of the hardcover and trade paperback collections of short fiction, Star Wars: The High Republic Volume 3, a slipcase set of all three High Republic short story volumes, and a special edition celebrating the 10th anniversary of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story next year.
The final two issues of Star Wars Insider will be released in early 2026. Back issues will be available while supplies last.’
For me, this has notably dwindled in quality since 2001/02 - which is when it became full of Special Edition content and retconning official history and contradicting their own previous articles and content… together with a more ‘corporate’ / ‘run by the Empire’ feel to it. Certainly lacking in the fun tongue-in-cheek humour it once had at times. I’m a little surprised they kept the SW Insider magazine going for so long. The 40th anniversary edition was a pisstake / FU to many of us older / OOT fans.