James Earl Jones retires from Star Wars Darth Vader role

James Earl Jones, the legendary voice behind Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, is retiring from the role in Star Wars.

In an interview with Vanity Fair published on Monday, September 24, Supervising Editor Matthew Wood said the 91-year-old was looking to wind down his role playing the baddie.

Wood said that Jones’ voice had been remastered from the original Star Wars films and had been used in the recent Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jones is said to have agreed for Disney and Lucas Film to use artificial intelligence and archival recordings to recreate his voice.

Jones, who Wood described as “a benevolent godfather,” has had his voice recreated by a cloning company in Ukraine called Respeecher. The company previously worked with Lucasfilm to create the voice of a young Luke Skywalker.

Despite the difficulties that have come with the Russian invasion, Wood said that the team’s attitude was: “Let’s work, let’s work in the face of this adversity, and let’s persevere.”

Jones voiced the original Darth Vader back in the mid-seventies for the original three movies, becoming somewhat of a legend for his role in playing the character. Although he voiced the character, a different actor always played the actual part among them the now departed David Prowse.

Jones, who reprised the role for later instalments of the franchise, earned himself a whole new generation of fans. They will be excited to hear that despite the news James Earl Jones retires from the Star Wars Darth Vader role, that his voice will continue to be heard in new instalments of the popular movie and TV series.

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