James Earl Jones, the legendary 91-year-old actor behind the most menacing voice in that galaxy far, far away, has signed the recreation of his Darth Vader voice by an Artificial Intelligence, as he looks to retire from the iconic role.
The news comes via a Vanity Fair report on how Respeecher’s Ukrainian workers worked to make Darth Vader sound like 45 years ago for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi despite the Russian invasion of their country. Obviously, Jones’s voice has changed over the years and he has “moved away from the role”, so resorting to artificial intelligence technology is a way to keep the voice alive that we all know and love for many years.
Respeecher uses “archival recordings and a proprietary AI algorithm to create new dialogue with the voices of performers from days gone by,” and Lucasfilm’s supervising sound editor, Matthew Wood, said the company also has that “slippery human touch.” “That makes the difference.
“Certainly my main concern was his 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 so they would stay in the office and do something.” Although the risks were very real for these Ukrainians, the project was the lifelong dream of Respeecher employeesincluding Bogdan Belyaev.
Wood went on to talk about how he had recorded Jones’ performances as Darth Vader at least a dozen times, the last being for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Around this time, Jones started talking about how his time as a character might be coming to an end, and that’s when the idea came up for Respeecher to keep her voice.
“I had mentioned that I was considering the possibility of ending this particular character,” says Wood. “So how do we move on?” The answer, it seems, is Respeecher, since “the actor signed on to the use of archival voice recordings of him to keep Vader alive and vital even by artificial means, appropriate, perhaps, for a character who is half-mechanical.” .”
Although Jones is not as involved as before, he still helped bring Vader to life in Obi-Wan Kenobi as a “benevolent godfather” who helped the team get Vader alright.
As for the Respeecher workers, they keep working because it means a lot to them and to their country.
“We create workplaces for people, we create jobs, we pay them money, we contribute to the Ukrainian economy, and that is quite significant,” says Respeecher CEO and co-founder Alex Serdiuk. “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 before we hear Vader’s voice again, but Respeecher wants us to know, while they continue to work hard on secret projects, that Obi-Wan Kenobi provided a “rare moment of celebration” for those who face so much.
“Why did I do it? It’s a great honor to work with Lucasfilm, and I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid,” said Belyaev. “Even if it is a war, there is no excuse to be the troublemaker of what you loved since childhood.”
The voices made by Artificial Intelligence technology are current, and in recent days they have been the center of controversy from the Ninja Theory studio, creator of the video game Hellblade.
