James Earl Jones Announces Retirement By Signing Over Rights To Darth Vader’s Voice

Actor James Earl Jones has officially signed over the rights to his legendary Darth Vader voice to filmmakers who hope to use artificial intelligence to “keep Vader alive,” according to an article on Mashable.

At 91 years old, Jones has voiced the iconic villain for 45 years.

A Ukrainian start-up called Respeecher has been tasked with recreating Jones’ voice using artificial intelligence by using “archival recordings and a proprietary AI algorithm to create new dialogue with the voices of performers from long ago,” Vanity Fair reported.

The artificial recreation of Darth Vader’s voice can already be heard in the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries, a gigantic accomplishment for Respeecher.

To clarify, “this doesn’t mean Jones doesn’t own rights to his voice,” according to Mashable.

According to the article, Jones “signed off on using archival voice recordings in conjunction with the Vader character.”

Lucasfilm said Jones will also be kept in the loop about plans for Darth Vader and seek his input and advice “on how to stay the right course.”