James Earl Jones, the voice of iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader, has sadly died at the age of 93.
His agent confirmed that he passed away yesterday morning (9 September) at his New York home, and tributes have been pouring in from all over the place including a particularly touching one from Mark Hamill.
The legendary performer’s final screen credit was for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, though he had taken steps to ensure that if they want to use his voice for Vader then they can.
He officially retired from the role in September 2022 following the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi, though according to Vanity Fair the Vader voice you hear in that show is the work of Ukrainian company Respeecher.
James Earl Jones acted as a ‘benevolent godfather’ to guide the recreation of his sonorous speaking voice, but in his final credit for the Star Wars saga his voice was recreated with the help of technology.
Should Star Wars ever feel compelled to bring back Darth Vader at some point, and you expect that they likely will do, they will be able to use his voice again and again.
That’s because Jones signed off on his voice being recreated through AI for Darth Vader’s performances, meaning audiences may continue to hear it throughout the years.
Essentially, should Star Wars wish to use James Earl Jones’ voice again for Darth Vader then they can.
It’s certainly not the first time Star Wars has used technology to recreate the likeness of a late performer.
In the 2016 movie Rogue One the part of Tarkin was played by Guy Henry, but his face was digitally altered to look like the late Peter Cushing, while in the same film Carrie Fisher’s younger likeness was superimposed over the face of Ingvild Deila to play Princess Leia.
His voice wasn’t quite right for the imposing Sith Lord, so James Earl Jones provided the iconic voice of Darth Vader and was sometimes working off a different script to Prowse.
During filming for The Empire Strikes Back to keep the revelation that Darth Vader was Luke’s father a secret only a handful of people knew the truth and a different line was said on set, with the big ‘I am your father’ reveal being dubbed in later.
Prowse didn’t actually know what the true line was until he got to see the movie after it was completed.
When Vader’s mask comes off so that Vader can look upon his son with his own eyes it was actor Sebastian Shaw who played that role.
Since then there have been others who have inhabited the suit on screen and provided the voice in various things like video games, but the voice in the movies has always been James Earl Jones.