10 Things You Didn’t Know About Count Dooku

Summary

• Count Dooku, originally a Jedi Master, ruled a planet and had a noble lineage, giving depth to his character.
• Dooku was initially planned as a female character before being rewritten to fit Christopher Lee’s regal portrayal.
• Dooku’s lightsaber skills and betrayal of the Jedi highlight his complex character and role in Star Wars lore.

Count Dooku is known as the sinister leader of the Jedi’s opposition during the Clone Wars, but there is so much more to the Star Wars villain than meets the eye. The fallen Jedi has an incredibly colorful background that makes his role as Darth Sidious’ original apprentice very complicated. In fact, Dooku’s rich history is part of what makes him such an effective tool for the future Emperor.

Portrayed by the legendary Sir Christopher Lee, Count Dooku is an incredible character. Though he was first introduced at the end of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and killed in the early scenes of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Dooku played an enormous role in the plot of the Star Wars prequels. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was instrumental in the creation of Darth Vader. There are still, however, quite a few facts about him that are generally unknown.

10 Dooku Ruled A Planet Called Serreno

Yes… He’s A Real Count

Count Dooku’s title is more than just a flowery label. The family that Dooku was born into was a noble line that governed the planet Serreno, though Dooku was raised at the Jedi Temple after his Force sensitivity began to show. Dooku would eventually reconnect with his mother and sister, but he would continue his Jedi training, graduating to the rank of Master and taking on Qui-Qon Jinn as a Padawan. His true heritage, however, would always be in the back of his mind.

Years later, Dooku would return to his home planet at the behest of his sister. Dooku’s brother, Count Ramil, had incited an invasion of his own planet in an attempt to turn the people against the Republic. After overthrowing his brother, Dooku stepped down from the Jedi Order and declared himself the new ruler of Serenno.

9 Dooku’s Character Was Originally Female

Rewritten To Fit Sir Christopher Lee

Early scripts and concept art describe Count Dooku as being an alien woman. This “Countess Dooku” character would have been a powerful female Sith working along with the future Emperor. However, when the legendary Sir Christopher Lee joined the cast, George Lucas decided to rewrite his idea into an elegant and regal villain that matched the actor’s gravitas. The final version of Count Dooku echoed Lee’s history with debonair characters perfectly.

The original plans for this menacing female Sith came back in the form of Dooku’s apprentice, Asajj Ventress. Ventress’ role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is originally a recurring assassin, but her story develops into a complex tragedy over time. She works alongside Dooku until she realizes that he considers her expendable. She then heads out on her own, becoming a bounty hunter before finding her own path to redemption.

8 Dooku Once (Wrongly) Identified A Sith Infiltration

An Ironic Foreshadowing

After he defected to the Sith, Count Dooku would use his connection with the Jedi to help Darth Sidious achieve his plans. Long before this, however, Dooku would be incredibly loyal to the Jedi and their ideologies. Sidious was able to turn Dooku to his side by preying on Dooku’s growing disillusionment with the Jedi Order, which had begun years before Dooku ever fell to the dark side. Back when he was a Jedi, Dooku was so concerned about protecting the Jedi against the corruption of the Sith that he was sure he’d discovered a Sith infiltrator.

Jedi Master Lene Kostana once mocked Yoda in front of Dooku and Sifo-Dyas and slipped a book about the dark side to the two Padawans. Given his fierce loyalty to the Jedi, that greatly disturbed Dooku. Though he was wrong, Dooku initially believed that Master Kostana’s fascination with Sith relics might mean that she was involved with an emerging Sith threat herself.

7 Dooku Was Briefly A Vampire

Fitting Homage To Another Count

In the comic series Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle, Dooku concocts a dark plot to take over the galaxy. Dooku allies himself with Lord Ravna, the leader of a strange vampiric species found on the planet Bray. These bat-like creatures had the power to turn other beings into creatures like themselves with the scratch of their claws. Dooku intended to use the creatures as a tool to bring down the Republic during the Clone Wars.

The story is a brilliant way to honor the acting legacy of Sir Christopher Lee, who played another famous count back in 1958, the vampire Count Dracula.

After Lord Ravna betrays Dooku, the Count himself is infected. He only breaks free of the infection when he is able to connect with the Force through his anger. Ravna is eventually trapped in the rubble of the building, stuck there like a true vampire. The story is a brilliant way to honor the acting legacy of Sir Christopher Lee, who played another famous count back in 1958, the vampire Count Dracula.

6 He Was A Renowned Lightsaber Duelist

Echoes Of His Actor’s Real-Life Skills

Before he changed to the telltale red blade of the Sith, Dooku wielded a blue lightsaber, the color associated with a focus on combat. As a Jedi, Dooku was known as one of their best duelists. In Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Dooku effortlessly dispatches Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, leaving it up to Grand Master Yoda to finish the fight in a near-stalemate. Only Yoda, and perhaps Mace Windu, would be considered to be better duelists than Dooku.

Dooku’s skills are more than a neat detail added to make his character interesting. In real life, Sir Christopher Lee was one of film’s greatest swordsmen, holding the record for most on-screen sword fights. He was expertly trained with a sword, and would often weigh in on his characters’ fighting styles. Dooku’s lightsaber skills are another great homage to the incredible actor who portrayed him.

5 Christopher Lee Was Digitally Inserted Into Combat Scenes

A Young Man’s Game

Despite his incredible skills with a sword, Christopher Lee was 79 during the filming of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. At this point in his life, the movements required for most of his combat scenes were outside the realm of possibility. Lee was used for any possible scenes that required smaller movements, but when it came time to show him facing off against the quick-footed Jedi, Star Wars used his stunt double in his place.

Kyle Rowling served as the stunt double for Dooku, filming all the combat scenes where Lee’s legs needed to move quickly, such as Dooku’s duel with Yoda. Footage of Rowling and Lee was used together. Lee’s face was then superimposed onto Rowling’s body in the final version of any big fight scenes.

4 Dooku Was On Good Terms With The Jedi Before The Clone Wars

Dooku Double-Crossed Them

Just because Dooku left the Jedi didn’t mean that all ties with them were broken. After becoming the full-time ruler of Serenno, Dooku gave the Jedi no reason to think of him as a threat. Though he had been feeling the pull of the dark side due to his concern over the growing corruption in the Republic and the Jedi Order, Dooku’s decision to leave the Jedi was primarily driven by his desire to help his home planet, something the Jedi Council respected.

It wasn’t until after the eruption of the Clone Wars that Count Dooku revealed himself to be an enemy of the Jedi.

By this time, he had already secretly joined forces with Darth Sidious and assumed command of the Confederacy of Independant Systems. As the face of the Separatist movement, Dooku masterfully navigated the Jedi around the true cause of the conflict. This became their main focus and allowed Sidious to scheme in the shadows.

3 Sifo-Dyas Had Been His Best Friend

Dooku’s Worst Betrayal

Though he is only briefly mentioned by name in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Master Sifo-Dyas is best known in the Star Wars universe for his role in creating the clone troopers for the Republic’s army against the Separatists. This move is later revealed to have been orchestrated by Darth Sidious as part of his plan to play both sides of a conflict that would tear the galaxy’s government apart. Dooku, using the access he still had to the Jedi Temple, erased any trace of this event after directing the murder of his friend-turned-scapegoat.

As Padawans, Sifo-Dyas and Dooku had been great friends from their earliest days as Younglings. The two trained together and took their Trials together. Though they were inseparable during their time as apprentices, their friendship was no match for the growing darkness within Dooku.

2 He Had Another Padawan – Who Turned To The Dark Side

They Can’t All Be Qui-Gon Jinn

Count Dooku is part of one of the most illustrious Jedi lineages in the galaxy’s history, full of influential figures from Yoda all the way to the fearsome Darth Vader. Dooku was trained by Yoda, and later took Qui-Gon on as an apprentice. Qui-Gon went on to start the greatest domino effect of all when he rescued Anakin Skywalker from slavery on Tatooine. However, there was another apprentice Dooku trained after Qui-Gon was Knighted. This one didn’t turn out so well.

This unknown Padawan mentioned in Dooku: Jedi Lost fell to the dark side so swiftly and completely that she had to be killed. Dooku considered her an embarrassment, but kept the two red-bladed lightsabers his old apprentice had created and later gave them to Asajj Ventress. It’s likely the fall of his old apprentice was one of the final straws in Dooku’s lost faith in the Jedi.

1 Dooku’s Father Disliked Jedi

He Rejected Dooku As An Infant

Though he was born into a noble house with a lot of influence and power, Dooku’s Force abilities were not something that his father saw as any kind of asset. In fact, according to the audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost, Count Gora was so frightened by his son’s abilities that he abandoned his child in the wilderness before the Jedi could even arrive to take Dooku to the Temple. Count Gora regarded the Jedi as “freaks,” and wanted no part of them or their connection with the living Force.

As a youngling, Dooku was brought to Serenno to enjoy a festival, where he met his long-lost sister. When Dooku’s father realized who was there at the festival, he announced that he never wanted to see his Jedi son ever again, prompting Dooku to devote himself more fully to his training in an attempt to forget his father’s cruelty. He maintained contact with his sister, however, which would later bring him back to his homeworld for good. As Count of Serenno, Dooku would go on to impact the plot of Star Wars more than he could possibly expect.