James Earl Jones, the legendary voice actor behind the most menacing voice from that galaxy far, far away, has signed off on A.I. recreations of his Darth Vader voice as he looks to step back from the iconic role.
The news comes via a report from Vanity Fair about how Ukrainian tech workers at Respeecher worked to make Darth Vader sound like he did 45 years ago for Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi series despite the ongoing Russian invasion of their country. Jones' voice has obviously changed over the years and he has "stepped back from the role," so bringing in A.I. tech is a way to keep the voice we all know and love alive for many years to come.
Respeecher uses "archival recordings and a proprietary A.I. algorithm to create new dialogue with the voices of performers from long ago," and Lucasfilm supervising sound editor Matthew Wood said the company also has this "elusive human touch" that makes all the difference.
“Certainly my main concern was their well-being,” Wood added. “There are always alternatives that we could pursue that wouldn’t be as good as what they would give us. We never wanted to put them in any kind of additional danger to stay in the office to do something.” While the risks were very real for these Ukrainians, the project was a lifelong dream of the Respeecher employees, including Bogdan Belyaev.
Wood continued to discuss how he had recorded Jones' performances as Darth Vader at least a dozen times, with the last time being for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Around that time, Jones began talking about how his time as the character may be coming to an end, and this is when the idea of Respeecher keeping his voice going was brought up.
"He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character,” says Wood. “So how do we move forward?” The answer, it appears, is Respeecher, as "the actor signed off on using his archival voice recordings to keep Vader alive and vital even by artificial means—appropriate, perhaps, for a character who is half mechanical."
While Jones may not be as involved as he once was, he still helped bring Vader to life in Obi-Wan Kenobi as a "benevolent godfather" who helped the team get Vader just right.
As for the workers at Respeecher, they continue to work as it means so much to them and their country.
"We create places to work for people, we create jobs, we pay them money, we contribute to the Ukrainian economy, and that’s quite meaningful,” Respeecher CEO and Co-Founder Alex Serdiuk says. “But also, hopefully more people will hear about Ukraine—about our tech community, about our start-ups—because of it.”
It may be some time until we hear Vader's voice again, but Respeecher wants us to know, as they continue to work hard on secret projects, that Obi-Wan Kenobi did provide a "rare moment of celebration" for those facing so much.
"Why did I do it? It’s a big honor to work with Lucasfilm, and I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid," Belyaev said. "Even if it’s war, there’s no excuse for you to be the troublemaker of what you loved from childhood.”
For more, check out why we chose Darth Vader to top the list of our Best 100 Villains and our review of Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/james-earl-jones-signs-off-on-ai-recreations-of-his-darth-vader-voice-as-he-looks-to-leave-the-legendary-role