Partner Nintendo 3DS Central Social

Iconic Star Wars Darth Vader's Voice Retiring

cm2

cm2

Well-Known Member
Full GL Member
21,948
2018
1,877
Credits
155
Nintendo $20 EShop
Nintendo $20 EShop
Mature Board Viewing
PSN Gift Card $20
PSN Gift Card $20
Read from CBR:

After 45 years, James Earl Jones is saying goodbye to the galaxy far, far away by officially retiring from Star Wars.

According to Vanity Fair, Jones has signed the voice rights to his character Darth Vader over to Lucasfilm and Respeecher. The latter is a Ukranian company that uses archival recordings and an A.I. program to create new dialogue with the voices of performers who have either aged out of their roles or have passed away. This method was recently used to recreate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) for The Book of Boba Fett and to mimic Vader's voice, which Jones has now aged out of, for his scenes in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Matthew Wood, a sound editor at Lucasfilm, has recorded Jones' voice numerous times throughout his 32-year career with the company, the latest being for The Rise of Skywalker. When Wood showed Jones Respeecher's capabilities, the actor agreed to sign over the rights to his voice to keep Vader alive. "[James] had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character," Wood said. "So how do we move forward?" Though many studios recast voice actors when the original performer can no longer play the part, Jones' distinct sound has become synonymous with Vader.
 
He's given the franchise a very long good run in my opinion. He's done more than enough as far as I'm concerned.
 
Not a surprise at all, given his age (he's 91 years old); but he'll certainly be a very tough act to follow.

Good luck to his successor, whoever that is.
 
Kyng said:
Not a surprise at all, given his age (he's 91 years old); but he'll certainly be a very tough act to follow.

Good luck to his successor, whoever that is.
Click to expand...
The new player definitely got a big shoe to fill in.
 
I can understand why James Earl Jones would want to retire. I can't say that I blame him.

I'm sure they'd have enough material to work with, given how long his career has been, that they can just re-use material from all over his career to fill in what they need for future use (as long as James Earl Jones doesn't mind them re-using his voice for that role).
 
Demon_Skeith said:
They have to keep using his voice or it just won't work.
Click to expand...
That seems to be what they're planning... he didn't actually record any new dialogue for Kenobi (they used a combination of AI and his previous recordings) - and, they intend to continue doing this going forward.

I don't know if they'll have enough to work with - but it seemed to work pretty well in Kenobi!
 
Kyng said:
That seems to be what they're planning... he didn't actually record any new dialogue for Kenobi (they used a combination of AI and his previous recordings) - and, they intend to continue doing this going forward.

I don't know if they'll have enough to work with - but it seemed to work pretty well in Kenobi!
Click to expand...

That's something I'd figure they'd do and continue to do as long as they're going to make tv shows/movies that have to do with Star Wars in the future. It just wouldn't seem right to have anyone else voice Darth Vadar besides Mr. James Earl Jones. It just wouldn't sound right to me, however, I do understand that he wants to retire at some point and he absolutely has the right to do that. I just figured they'd have enough recordings from previous projects for them to not have to record him anymore.
 
WitchAssassin said:
That's something I'd figure they'd do and continue to do as long as they're going to make tv shows/movies that have to do with Star Wars in the future. It just wouldn't seem right to have anyone else voice Darth Vadar besides Mr. James Earl Jones. It just wouldn't sound right to me, however, I do understand that he wants to retire at some point and he absolutely has the right to do that. I just figured they'd have enough recordings from previous projects for them to not have to record him anymore.
Click to expand...
Even with those recordings, I would think some words or phrases could get overused or parsed in ways that would ruin the appeal of the original voice acting. I just hope they have good plans or backups.
 
Kyng said:
That seems to be what they're planning... he didn't actually record any new dialogue for Kenobi (they used a combination of AI and his previous recordings) - and, they intend to continue doing this going forward.

I don't know if they'll have enough to work with - but it seemed to work pretty well in Kenobi!
Click to expand...

Not like we'll ever get a vader based movie, so it should be safe to do so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top