After 45 years of voicing one of cinema’s greatest villains, the actor James Earl Jones is no longer providing the gravelly tones of Darth Vader for the Star Wars universe.
Instead, a Ukrainian voice-cloning company will reproduce his bass baritone for the character’s appearances, according to Lucasfilm, the production company behind the franchise.
Jones, 91, had been looking to “wind down” voicing the character over recent years, and has now given permission for his voice to be digitally replicated, the company’s sound editors said.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the sound editor Matthew Wood said Jones had last recorded a brief new line as Darth Vader for the 2019 film The Rise of Skywalker, while more recent dialogue had been created digitally
