Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones— who died Monday at 93—made sure in 2022 that the voice would live on via AI.
Jones’ representatives confirmed with Deadline that the legendary actor died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess Country, New York. The prolific actor, per the Internet Movie Database, amassed 190 screen credits during his career, which began with a role on the CBS daytime drama The Guiding Light in 1952.
Jones’s live-action credits included the films The Great White Hope, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, as well as the TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth and Roots: The Next Generation.
Jones, however, became just as legendary for his voice roles, which included his turn as Mufasa in the animated version of The Lion King and Darth Vader in the filmmaker George Lucas’ Star Wars film series, which began with his first turn as the Sith Lord in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. David Prowse, meanwhile wore Darth Vader’s suit and helmet for the film and its first two sequels.
Jones went on to voice Darth Vader in every Star Wars film that featured the character in the ensuing years. However, in September of 2022, Jones officially retired from the role of Darth Vader but ensured the voice of the character would live on forever.
A ‘Star Wars’ Sound Editor Presented Jones With The AI Option To Recreate His Voice
According to Vanity Fair, James Earl Jones signed over the rights to Star Wars filmmakers in 2022 to recreate his voice via artificial intelligence thanks to the innovation by Ukrainian tech start-up Respeecher.
Matthew Wood—the supervising sound editor at Lucasfilm who had previously recorded Jones’ voice for the role—told Vanity Fair in 2022 that he knew Jones was close to retiring from voicing Darth Vader and presented the actor with Respeecher’s work.
“He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character,” Wood told the publication. “So how do we move forward?”
Wood noted for Vanity Fair that the last time he recorded Darth Vader’s dialogue with Jones came in 2019 for Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
The publication reported that Respeecher helped recreate Jones’/Darth Vader’s voice in 2022 when Disney+ released the Star Wars spinoff series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In the series, Ewan McGregor reprised his Star Wars prequel movie role as Obi-Wan Kenobi, while Hayden Christensen appeared as his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker in flashback scenes and in the Darth Vader suit in the present.
Obi-Wan Kenobi ended up being Jones’ final screen credit. According to IMDb, Genius: MLK/X star Aaron Pierre will be voicing Mufasa in the upcoming computer animated movie Mufasa: The Lion King.
There’s no word on the next time Jones’ voice will appear in a Star Wars movie or television show.
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