Throughout the entire Disney era of Star Wars, the studio have come under criticism for failing to take risks with the franchise, with each new story being told seemingly obligated to tie back to the Original Trilogy in some way despite there literally being an infinite number of possibilities to take the beloved sci-fi saga in an entirely new direction using characters, planets and galaxies that we’ve never seen before.
Both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker found themselves under fire for relying too heavily on nostalgia and established iconography at the expense of originality, while The Last Jedi was initially savaged by fans for doing the exact opposite. The Mandalorian managed to hit that narrative sweet spot between the old and new, but the general feeling is that Star Wars has been returning to the well far too often.
The campaign for a Solo sequel may have gathered pace recently, but a lot of these people didn’t exactly turn up in huge numbers the first time around when Han’s origin story bombed at the box office. Not every major figure in the Star Wars mythology needs an elaborately-explained backstory, but expanded universe comic book writer and novelist Michael Moreci nonetheless admitted that he’d love to see Count Dooku’s origin story happen in live-action one day.
“He’s such a robust personality that you can hear that Christopher Lee-ism in your head. Getting a young Dooku, to see his upbringing in a live-action series, like pre-prequel stuff, he’s sort of an evil guy underneath, but he gets involved in the Jedi Order nonetheless and you see him evolve to what he ultimately becomes. That would be amazing.”
Dooku played a major role in the animated Clone Wars series, but while exploring his earlier years seems unnecessary, he admittedly does have one of the more interesting backstories in the Star Wars universe, having been trained by Yoda and taken Qui-Gon Jinn as his apprentice before eventually turning his back on the Force and embracing the Dark Side, which could be a great tale to see in live-action if it was handled right.
