Darth Vader voice played by James Earl Jones signs over rights

9/24/2022

James Earl Jones – one of the most distinctive voices in the history of film – appears to have made steps to step back from voicing the Star Wars character, Darth Vader, after nearly 40 years in the role.

Vanity Fair reports that the actor, aged 91, has signed over the rights to his voice to filmmakers using new AI, technology, Matthew Wood of Lucasfilm told the magazine that the actor “wished to keep Vader alive”

Enter Respeecher: the technology that helped bring to life a younger Luke Skywalker in Book of Boba Fett was implemented for Vader in Kenobi, while physically the character was portrayed by Hayden Christensen (Anakin) and Dmitrious Bistrevsky (Vader suit).

Jones deserves to retire from such an iconic role, but it’s a little weird to ensure that his performance lives on through AI technology. There’ve been other actors who voiced the character over the decades and did a fairly good job at it, such as Matt Sloan in the Force Unleashed games.

Similar to discussions about AI art, there’s something ethically dicey about this, and that feeling will likely not go away as Disney uses it in other shows or films.

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