Hello fellow Wookieepedians! Recently, we had the opportunity to chat with Dan Brooks. This interview is the fifth and final 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 him for sitting down with us!

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

A1: I honestly don't recall -- Star Wars has just kind of always been there and was definitely one of my first pop-culture loves. I do remember going to see Return of the Jedi in about 1985 during a rerelease. I would've been 4 or 5 years old, and I brought all of my Kenner Star Wars figures with me to the theater. I stood them all up on my seat and watched the entire movie sitting on my dad's lap.

A few years later, around 1991 when Star Wars started making a comeback, I saw a two-night double feature of Empire and Jedi on cable. THAT was the real life-changing moment. I hadn't seen them in years and I was the perfect age to understand them, learn from them, and appreciate the artistry behind them. I was obsessed after that.

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

A2: The movies. I love the TV series, games, books, and comics, but it started with the movies for me, and I feel that they still wield the most power. Sitting down in a dark theater to see a new Star Wars movie for the first time? There's nothing else like it.

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

A3: I can't single one out because there were so many and it was such a race to get it all done, but I really enjoyed working on Star Wars Resistance-related entries. Resistance is a show I always liked, and I covered it while working at StarWars.com and Lucasfilm -- really documenting its entire run. When new episodes would come out they'd show them in the main Lucasfilm theater, and I would take my young son out of the campus daycare to watch the episodes with me. So I have some good memories tied to that show, and it was awesome to revisit it. It was also a fun challenge to come up with entries for the more minor characters; you'd have to scour the background for them and figure out their personality just from their body language or a couple lines of dialogue.

Comic-related entries were also a highlight, just because I love comics in general. I got to revisit some favorites and also read a lot of stories I'd always meant to, but had never carved out the time. So here was an excuse! And so much happens across the timeline in Marvel's modern books; they're really essential.

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

A4: What immediately springs to mind is everything around the Spark Eternal, which is essentially an ancient AI device created by cultists looking to destroy the Sith. It's a really interesting mix of technology and mysticism, and a great representation of the push and pull between them -- a classic Star Wars theme. I don't want to spoil it for those who don't know, but the Spark Eternal played a huge role in the comics a few years back. Definitely worth checking out.

Q5: Were there any fun “Easter eggs” or pieces of lore you were able to include in the book?

A5: There might be some things here and there, but it's more like I snuck in turns of phrase or references. For the karnex dragon, I wrote that its "vision is based on movement." That's true of the creature, but it's also a definite callback to a line about one of my favorite movie monsters: the T-Rex in Jurassic Park.

Q6: What do you hope readers will most get out of the book?

A6: I hope they get a sense of how vast the Star Wars saga has become, and how live-action series, animation, games, books, and comics all count toward the tapestry. Star Wars is a living thing and it keeps evolving. The book is a great snapshot, if a very big one, of what Star Wars is right now.

Q7: If people would like to keep in touch with you and your works, what social media platforms can they find you on?

A7: These days I'm mostly on Instagram, resharing stories about the sad state of my beloved New York Jets and Rangers, but I'm also on X and BlueSky.