*James Earl Jones is reportedly retiring from voicing Darth Vader after nearly 40 years for the “Star Wars” franchise.
The 91-year-old actor has signed over the rights to his voice to filmmakers using new AI technology to keep the iconic villain alive for future films.
“He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character,” Matthew Wood of Lucasfilm told Vanity Fair. “So how do we move forward?”
Jones made his debut as Darth Vader in the 1977 film and recently worked on Vader’s lines for the new “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+. The actual voice in the show was generated by an AI firm called Respeecher in Ukraine, per AV Club.
READ MORE: James Earl Jones Only Earned $7K to Voice Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars’ | VIDEO
We reported previously that Jones was allegedly paid $7,000 to voice Darth Vader in the first “Star Wars” film. He explained in a recently resurfaced clip from the American Film Institute that director George Lucas cast him to voice Darth Vader, a character actually played by the late David Prowse.
“George wanted, pardon the expression, a dark voice,” Jones said in the clip. “So he hires a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters. And that’s the voice. That’s me.”
Jones also admitted that he was quite excited about his $7000 paycheck.
“I lucked out, from all these so-called handicaps, for a job that paid $7,000! I thought that was good money,” Jones told AFI. “And I got to be a voice on a movie!”
Jones claims he and Lucas disagreed on how Darth Vader should sound in the film’s sequel, “The Empire Strikes Back.”
“He said, ‘We don’t know what we did right, so let’s just try what we did … What we’re finding out is you need to keep his voice on a very narrow band of inflection because he ain’t human, really,’” Jones recalled of Lucas.
Watch the clip below of him talking about being cast as the voice of Darth Vader.
