While James Earl Jones provided guidance on Darth Vader’s voice in Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, what we heard was generated by an AI.
For more than 40 years, James Earl Jones has provided the voice for arguably the most iconic villain in cinema history, Darth Vader. Since the original trilogy, he voiced Vader at the end of 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, returned for Rogue One as well as the TV show Star Wars Rebels, and had a single line in The Rise of Skywalker. Now, the 91 year-old actor is taking a more limited role in the Star Wars universe.
According to Vanity Fair, Darth Vader’s voice in the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series was produced by an AI firm in Ukraine called Respeecher. During the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Respeecher’s crew was apparently putting the finishing touches on Vader’s voice while air raid sirens were blaring around them.
Respeecher was able to recreate Jones’ voice so that it closely resemble how it sounded during the original trilogy of Star Wars films. While Jones didn’t actually record lines for Obi-Wan Kenobi, sound engineer Matthew Wood said that he acted as “a benevolent godfather” and gave guidance on how the character should sound. He also signed off the final result, and his family told Wood how pleased they were with the results.
So we may never literally hear James Earl Jones as Darth Vader again, but we’re basically guaranteed to hear his Darth Vader voice as Disney continues developing its Star Wars Cinematic Universe.
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