James Earl Jones’ iconic portrayal of Darth Vader has been a favourite target of AI voice synthesisers since the technology became more accessible to people outside of research labs.
However, it was hard for amateurs to make any serious attempts as they were stuck with the relatively small number of voice lines the character actually says throughout the Star Wars franchise.
At 91, Jones is understandably ready to walk away from Star Wars projects, and Disney has turned to AI to fill the role. With access to Jones’ archive of past voice recordings, Ukrainian synthetic voice company Respeecher has been tasked with creating Vader’s voice lines for new shows and films.
The company had already worked on creating the voice for a young Luke Skywalker in last year’s The Book of Boba Fett, using both film audio and years of interviews with actor Mark Hamill.
They have now recreated Vader’s voice for Disney Plus’ series Obi-Wan Kenobi which was released earlier this year, and will most likely be responsible for the role in any projects, going forward.
According to a report by Vanity Fair, Respeecher staff in Ukraine were still rushing to complete their work on Obi-Wan Kenobi as Russian forces invaded in February.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Respeecher CEO Alex Serdiuk said, “We create places to work for people, we create jobs, we pay them money, we contribute to the Ukrainian economy, and that’s quite meaningful. But also, hopefully, more people will hear about Ukraine—about our tech community, about our start-ups—because of it.”
IOL Tech