Christopher Lee is "enormously" looking forward to being in the next Star Wars film.
Lee will be joining the as yet unsubtitled Episode Two, Starwars.com said Tuesday, confirming weeks of anonymous reports and sometimes outrageous speculation.
Despite earlier rumors to the contrary, Lee will not be playing "an evil Jedi knight" but a "charismatic separatist," whose efforts to divide the Old Republic presumably feed into Palpatine's plans.
"This particular series of film will be a mythic saga on a vast scale."
Lee, a legend in his own right, praised the Star Wars saga.
"The scale of imagination and the scale of production and the impact that it had on the entire world was a first," he told Starwars.com. "It created an impact in the cinema that was unique. This particular series of film will be a mythic saga on a vast scale."
In particular, he praised the saga's sense of fun, noting that this quality was "sadly . . . increasingly rare" in the contemporary film industry.
Episode Two is still set for a summer 2002 release. Meanwhile, Lee fans will be able to savor the king of Hammer Horror's portrayal of the corrupt wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings.
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