Star Wars actor James Earl Jones "winding down" as Darth Vader

Has he already given his final performance as the Sith Lord?

By Joe Anderton

24 Sep 2022

LucasfilmDisney

Star Wars legend James Earl Jones may be stepping down from providing the voice of Darth Vader, it has been reported.

The iconic actor has been providing the voice of the Sith Lord in the films and a few spin-offs since 1977's A New Hope.

He was recently heard in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, although it was actually an AI-generated voice using the Respeecher technology that made Vader sound like Jones did decades ago.

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Now, a Vanity Fair article has reported that the 91-year-old actor is looking to retire from providing the initial recordings, having signed away the rights to let Disney, Lucasfilm and the Respeecher team use the 10,000+ voice files they have of him to compile new Vader dialogue.

In the article, which details how the Ukraine-based tech team were sending the AI de-aged voice files back to Lucasfilm just as Russia's invasion was beginning, Star Wars sound editor (and General Grievous and Battle Droid voice actor) Matthew Wood said Jones last recorded new dialogue in 2019, for a single line in The Rise of Skywalker.

"He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character. So how do we move forward?" Wood said.

Wood described Jones as a "benevolent godfather", and revealed that the actor's family were very impressed with what the Respeecher team had done on Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It will be interesting to see if the Respeecher technology will be used for other projects like video games and the LEGO shorts, which have previously used stand-in voice actors like Scott Lawrence and Matt Sloan to portray Vader.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the entire Skywalker Saga are available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K now, as well as on Disney+.