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Borderlands expands with ‘Dead Echos,’ a new 10-part narrative podcast series

Gearbox's videogame franchise moves into new territory with a new audio drama produced by the game studio itself launching this Spring

News by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Thu Mar 26 2026

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Anyone who’s familiar with video game series Borderlands knows about the ECHOnet — a communication network that lets users interact with each other, as long as they have access to an ECHO unit. But… what if some of those ECHO messages go missing or get lost in transmission? That’s the question behind the first official Borderlands audio drama, Borderlands: Dead Echos.

Originally announced at PAX West 2025, the series was reintroduced ahead of its imminent launch during the Gearbox Main Theater Show at PAX East 2026.

The series is “kind of a play on the idea of a Dead Letter Office, which is where your mail goes when you don’t write your address right or it gets washed off in the rain or something, and someone tries to figure out how to deliver it. We came up with the idea of a Dead ECHOs office,” creative producer (and series co-writer) Joel Watson explained. “Where do the echoes that don’t get left behind rocks go, and what if someone listens to them and learns things they’re not supposed to learn?”

That someone is Watts, a Dahl Corporation ECHO operator who decides to start up a side hustle with the undelivered ECHOs, and another new character named Junie, who has a “mysterious past” as well as a connection with a certain weapons manufacturer in the Borderlands universe, Watson and co-writer April Johnson teased. “It becomes kind of a Robin Hood thing” when the two team up and get up to no good, apparently. (Watson and Johnson also voice Watts and Junie, respectively.)

Fans should expect the 10-episode series to tie in closely with Borderlands game canon — according to Watson, the 10 episodes basically run in the same time period as Borderlands 4, with the show ending at the current point of game continuity — with some familiar characters showing up in some of the lost ECHOs. “We’re going to hear Claptrap,” Watson revealed. “He’s leaving voicemails for people, he’s inviting people to parties nobody wants to go to. He’s rapping again, if anyone wants to hear Claptrap rap.”

Borderlands: Dead Echos will be available across podcast platforms when it launches this Spring. A teaser is already live on Spotify, with other platforms to follow.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.