Hello fellow Wookieepedians! Recently, we had the opportunity to chat with Megan Crouse. This interview is the fourth installment in an interview miniseries with the authors of Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy, to explore some of their insights on the project.

Many thanks to her for sitting down with us!

Q1: What was the first Star Wars film you remember watching?

A1: Technically I saw Return of the Jedi first, through a glimpse at my parents’ television when I was very young. Young enough to be terrified by the droid torture scene, though, so I didn’t watch the rest of it, and Star Wars retreated into my brain as one of those formative but vague childhood images for a while. I started paying attention again when Attack of the Clones came out, and watched and loved both the available Prequels and the Original Trilogy some time around 2002.

Q2: What is your favorite medium of Star Wars media to consume?

A2: Books. I started reading Star Wars Insider fiction and novels shortly after getting into the movies. I’ve always loved discussing the books, learning how they were made, and seeing what corner of the Star Wars galaxy (or an alternate version of it, like in Ronin) the books are going to explore next.

Q3: What was your favorite entry to work on for the book?

A3: Avar Kriss. Well, really, having her together with Stellan and Elzar as a unit was my favorite. I’m fond of The High Republic and knew Avar’s story very, very well from my work on The High Republic Character Encyclopedia. For the 2024 encyclopedia we were racing against Phase III materials as they came out, and it was fun to update the entry as much as we could as The High

Republic series went along.

Q4: What was the most surprising/interesting thing you learned about Star Wars lore while working on the book?

A4: I loved an excuse to look at the technical details of Moff Gideon’s light cruiser. The vehicles and characters in The Mandalorian are so toyetic, but then when you dive into the details of how this ship can hold 250 crew members or was manufactured at Kuat or that sort of thing, it feels like a real place you can walk into at the same time.

Q5: What do you hope readers will most get out of the book?

A5: Escapism and community. When I was a kid, reading Star Wars reference books like the 1998 encyclopedia by Stephen Sansweet transported me. That encyclopedia was so detailed it was almost meditative to read; there was no room in my mind for anything else except those little blurbs packing as much information about a whole book or story arc in as they could.

I read it out loud to my brother when we were kids. I hope people see these encyclopedias both as windows into a galaxy so detailed as to almost be real, and also as a way to connect with other fans. To pore over together and use as a launching point for other ideas.

Q6: If people would like to keep in touch with you and your works, what social media platforms can they find you on?

A6: Nowadays I’m only on Bluesky, @fullofwords.