Becky alerted us to this new article at Empire Online, which confirms the name of Christopher Lee's character in Episode II. We're leaving it as a spoiler here for now, but George Lucas himself has now confirmed it:

In the introduction to ?Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History? by Jonathan Rigby (published by Reynolds and Hearn), George Lucas writes:

?When it was time to cast the role of (Name Spoiler) Count Dooku (End Spoiler) in Star Wars: Episode II my casting director suggested Christopher Lee and I jumped at the opportunity to work with him. I knew that I needed someone who could convey evil. But in addition, I needed someone to bring stature, strength and wisdom to the role. His villainous r?sum? speaks for itself.?

Lee also mentions that he doesn't want to personally reveal his role because he doesn't want to risk getting in trouble with Lucas and losing any chance of appearing in Episode III, so at this point it looks like he's going to return.

Head on over for the rest of the article about the veteran actor, including some small tidbits about Episode II, and news about his other current project, Lord of the Rings. And thanks also to Empire Online's own James Dyer for the alert!

If you've been with us since this summer, you'll know the Force is with us, especially since TFN was the first to report this news way back in July of 2000. To put it in perspective, that was almost 2000 posts ago. Wow.