In some ways James Earl Jones baritone voice is as iconic to Darth Vader as the Sith lords helmet and red lightsaber. But now after forty years its time for someone else to take over the role or at least for someone to recreate the actors 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 did not record any new dialogue for the series. Instead his participation was slightly different. Jones signed off with the shows 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 Lucass original trilogy before he reprised the voice role in 2005s 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 Joness voice for future Star Wars projects Jones is not entirely finished with the Vader role. He stated he would 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 theres 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.
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