Before he passed away, James Earl Jones signed

papers allowing AI to voice Darth Vader.

 

This was a wise and prescient choice.

A few years before he passed away, the late, great James Earl Jones worked with an AI voice studio to immortalize his signature baritone and the “Star Wars” character he developed with it.

In 2022, Jones worked with the Ukrainian business Respeecher to recreate his smooth voice for the Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” In doing so, he also ceded control of his instantly recognizable voice, which he used in a variety of TV series and motion pictures, including “The Lion King” and “The Hunt for Red October.”

Using movie stills from the original “Star Wars” films instead of the actor’s voice at the time, Respeecher trained its AI to sound like Harrison Ford. Despite the fact that his voice as an elderly man was not used to train the AI data for the Vader cloning, Jones offered Disney and Lucasfilm guidance on the character during the development of the show.

Similar to the on-screen bloodshed that defines the “Star Wars” universe, the Kyiv-based company had to deal with its own real-life struggle during the early days of Russia’s invasion of the Ukrainian capital, which coincided with Respeecher finalizing the project.

Another “Star Wars” actor who played with Vader in the 1977 film “A New Hope” has also made headlines following his loss, but for a different cause, even though it is highly likely that Jones granted permission for his audio likeness to be replicated after his passing.

The Times of London reports that producer Kevin Francis, who worked with late actor Peter Cushing, is suing Disney for bringing Cushing back to life 22 years after his death in the 2016 “Rogue One” prequel as the imperial commander Grand Moff Tarkin.

Francis claims that Cushing gave him instructions before he passed away in 1994, saying that no one was to use his likeness digitally without gaining his express permission. Disney, on the other hand, failed to comply, according to the producer’s lawsuit.

Disney claimed in its response that it paid Cushing’s agent to use his likeness to revive the Tarkin character in “Rogue One” and that Francis was seeking “unjust enrichment” when suing the entertainment monolith for more than $650,000.
Still, a British High Court judge ruled against Disney’s attempts to get the suit thrown out.

With that contextual hindsight, Jones’ contract with Respeecher seems all the smarter for protecting the rights to his valuable voice asset especially given that he was only paid $7,000 for his work on “A New Hope” back in the 70s.