James Earl Jones has confirmed he’s retiring his role as the voice of Darth Vader and has signed over the rights to LucasFilm and A.I. studio Respeecher.
Vanity Fair reported the 91-year-old actor has stepped back from the role after almost 50 years as the iconic villain.
James Earl Jones as Darth Vader
Jones first took on the role of Vader for the original movie Star Wars: A New Hope, wat back in 1977, and has since played the Sith Lord 11 times – or 15 if you count every extra episode of Star Wars Rebels he was in.
When he first landed the role he was coming off the back of his 1974 Golden Globes-nominated role in Claudine and he explained in a 2008 interview he was torn on putting his name on a voice-only role as he wasn’t the man behind the costume.
He said: ‘When Linda Blair did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming out of her. And there was controversy as to whether Mercedes should get credit.
‘I was one who thought no, she was just special effects. So when it came to Darth Vader, I said, no, I’m just special effects. But it became so identified that by the third one, I thought, OK I’ll let them put my name on it.’
James Earl Jones retires Darth Vader
Now VF has confirmed Jones is stepping down from playing the villain as supervising sound editor at Skywalker Sound, Matthew Wood, explained they hired Respeecher so they can continue to use Jone’s voice for future projects.
Disney had previously worked with the Ukrainian A.I. company to generate Luke Skywalker’s voice in The Book of Boba Fett.
VF reported: ‘“So how do we move forward?” When he ultimately presented Jones with Respeecher’s work, 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.’
Along with previously voicing Vader, Jones is also known for voicing Mufasa in the Lion King movies and has had an extensive career in film, television and theatre.