James Earl Jones Reportedly Retires ‘Darth Vader’ Voice Role
James Earl Jones, the unique voice of Star Wars’ legendary archvillain Darth Vader, has reportedly signed over the rights to use his voice in digital recreations for the character.
Vanity Fair reports that Ukrainian software company Respeecher, in collaboration with Lucasfilm, has been using its proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm to replicate Jones’ menacing voice, which is different at age 91 in comparison to 45 years ago when the franchise’s first film premiered.
Matthew Wood of Skywalker Sound estimated that he recorded Jones at least a dozen times over the years. “He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character,” Wood told Vanity Fair. “So how do we move forward?”
After hearing Respeecher’s work, Jones gave his approval on using his archival voice recording to keep Darth Vader’s classic voice in future films, Wood added.
Respeecher’s technology was used to replicate Jones’ 1977 Vader voice for Disney+’s recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series, as well as the voice of young Luke Skywalker for The Book of Boba Fett on the same streamer.
