Besides the unique outfit and the hype that automatically comes with the character, Darth Vader’s voice is also unique. Since the early Star Wars films, the voice of the iconic character has come from James Earl Jones – now 45 years later, the 91-year-old actor wants to step down from dubbing the character. But that doesn’t mean fans want to get used to a new voice, as Jones has used an AI to make his voice immortal.
According to a report from Vanity Fair, AI startup Respeecher, which has already achieved notoriety with videos of its voice imitations of Obama and co, has taken on the task and is collaborating with Lucasfilms to clone the voice of Darth Vader. This is not the first collaboration between the Ukrainian startup and Hollywood. Already in the Disney+ series “The Book of Boba Fett”, Respeecher’s software was used to imitate the voices of actors from past films.
Fans could already hear that the technology also works with the distinctive voice of James Earl Jones in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The difference was hardly noticeable.
With Respeecher, the artificial intelligence is taught the pattern and pitch of the respective original by means of various voice samples. Then, all it needs is a microphone and the original voice is adjusted and optimized in real time.
Of course, the rights to his voice remain with Jones, who is currently talking to Lucasfilm about future plans with Vader and whose advice will be taken into account in the further development of the AI voice.
