I’ve previously told the story of how one man’s peculiar career choices led to me asking the question: “What if Darcy went around destroying planets?” and writing a whole book about the answer. But somewhere along the way, I realized that this gentleman was not the only actor to jump from Jane Austen to Star Wars (or vice versa) in a professional capacity. Reader, I set out to include nods to them all. This proved to be tricky because there were two Jane Austen adaptations and one Austen spinoff (The Other Bennet Sister) which went into production while I was writing Pride & Planetoids. Why are Mrs. Jennings, Mrs. Catherine DeBourgh and what seems to be Frederick Wentworth’s dad all related in Pride & Planetoids? Blame a certain lady who played Sophie Wentworth Croft in the 1995 Persuasion, the title character’s foster mother in Andor, Lady Catherine in Netflix P&P, and Mrs. Jennings in S&S2026. Why is Mr. Bennet some kind of relative of Walter Elliot in my novel, and why does he make snarky remarks about a hypothetical “General Pride”? Blame the Scarlet Pimpernel, for taking roles in Rise of Skywalker, Persuasion 2022, and The Other Bennet Sister. Why is Mr. Collins mixed up in a digital impersonation plot, and somehow related to the Knightley family? And so on. If you know your Austen adaptations, and you know your Star Wars, you’ll probably spot the lawyer-friendly in-jokes. Check out Pride & Planetoids at Amazon today!