Darth Vader’s Voice Retires From Star Wars

Darth Vader, who was among the strongest, most successful and most popular characters in the world-famous series Star Wars, was portrayed as a semi-mechanized character that frightened with his imposing appearance. In order to achieve this imposing look, David Prowse, who is also a bodybuilder and weightlifter, took part in the filming of the film, with a height of about 2 meters, in the costume. The voice of the character was given by James Earl Jones.

In the 45 years after the first movie, Jones took part with his voice in many Star Wars works both in the cinema and on television. In a recent deal, Jones has officially retired from Star Wars and transferred the rights to Lucasfilm and Respeecher.

Jones will continue to lead

Respeecher, a Ukrainian company that has been in a very difficult situation due to the war, is a company that uses artificial intelligence to produce the voices of past characters of actors who have become too old for their past roles or have died. The firm’s work has also recently appeared in The Book of Boba Fett and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Matthew Wood, who worked as a sound editor at Lucasfilm for 32 years, presented Jones with Respeecher’s work and convinced him to hand over the rights to the famous name. Although many studios are going to deal with different names to voice the characters, Lucasfilm did not accept this idea and preferred to look for alternative ways, since Jones’s voice was almost identical with Darth Vader.

This decision also blocked the way Lucasfilm might face criticism in the future. Because characters such as Peter Cushing (Tarkin) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), who had previously died in Star Wars movies, were placed in the movie with CGI, which became the subject of discussion because it happened without the permission of the actors. Thus, Lucasfilm managed to stay away from these discussions and preserve Darth Vader’s voice. Jones, on the other hand, will continue to advise on the character, although he has transferred his rights.

You can find out how Jones’ voice has changed over the years and how it has affected the character in the video below.

To understand Jones’ influence on the character, you can hear Prowse’s original voice in the video below.