In some ways, James Earl Jones‘ baritone voice is as iconic to Darth Vader as the Sith lord’s helmet and red lightsaber. But now, after forty years, it’s time for someone else to take over the role — or at least, for someone to recreate the actor’s voice.
IndieWire (via Vanity Fair) reports that Jones has officially retired from voicing Darth Vader after 40 years as the “Star Wars” arch-villain. And while the 91-year-old actor had a credit on Disney+‘s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” as Vader, he actually didn’t record any new dialogue for the series. Instead, his participation was slightly different. Jones signed off with the show’s producers for them to recreate his voice using both archival footage and AI technology. The finished product came from Respeecher, a Ukrainian startup specializing in recreating past performers’ voices.
Jones retiring from playing Vader marks an end of an era for the “Star Wars” galaxy. The actor first played the character in “Episode IV: A New Hope” and the rest of George Lucas‘s original trilogy before he reprised the voice role in 2005’s “Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.” He also voiced the character in more recent “Star Wars” films “Rogue One” and “The Last Jedi,” as well as several episodes of the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels.”
While Respeecher will continue to reproduce Jones’s voice for future “Star Wars” projects, Jones isn’t entirely finished with the Vader role. He stated he’d like to describe his connection to the character from now on as a “benevolent godfather,” with the wish to see Vader remain relevant in pop culture. Hayden Christensen feels similarly about the part. “I think this is a character that sort of resonates in our culture and in a very kind of profound way,” Christensen said told EW Canada in May. “And there’s certainly more there to explore. There are so many other stories that have been told in these other mediums.”
Will Christensen get another chance to play Vader? That appears to be the case with “Ashoka,” another upcoming “Star Wars” show for Disney+. But no matter who plays Vader in person, the character will always have Jones’ voice.
