While James Earl Jones won’t be voicing Darth Vader in future Star Wars projects, fans havenât heard the last of him. The actor has signed off on allowing an A.I to replicate his voice, as reported by Vanity Fair.
Jones has been voicing the character since the 1977 Star Wars film, along with its successors, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He has gone on to lend his voice to numerous Star Wars projects, including video games, television shows, and studio movies. Jones was recently “featured” in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was the result of a collaboration between Ukrainian start-up Respeecher and Lucasfilm to use A.I. to recreate Jones’ voice.
According to sound editor Matthew Wood, Jones last voiced Vader in the 2019 film The Rise of the Skywalker. At the time, the 91-year-old actor expressed that he was ready to step back from the role, prompting Wood to suggest using archival recordings to “keep Vader alive and vital.â
Wood told Vanity Fair, âHe had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character. So how do we move forward?â The collaborators put the A.I. to test for the first time in Obi-Wan Kenobi – later called a âmoment of celebration.â
Being based out of Ukraine (during Russia’s invasion), Respeecher faced many hardships during the process, but synthetic-speech artist Bogdan Belyaev insists his âloveâ for the franchise kept him dedicated. âWhy did I do it? Itâs a big honor to work with Lucasfilm, and Iâve been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid. Even if itâs war, thereâs no excuse for you to be the troublemaker of what you loved from childhood,â said Belyaev.
Previously, the company collaborated with Lucasfilm to recreate Mark Hamill’s voice for a young Luke Skywalker in Disney+âs The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian.
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