As part of the new Star Wars season in Fortnite, Disney and Epic Games have brought back the James Earl Jones voice of Darth Vader through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Players can interact and talk with Darth Vader in the game, which is now available in Fortnite.
Update: Epic Games has already released a patch as Darth Vader was swearing in response to players.
Update #2: SAG-AFTRA has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board over the use of AI.
Disney and Jones Family Approve AI Darth Vader Voice for Fortnite
Disney and Lucasfilm announced they worked closely with the family of the late James Earl Jones who passed away last year.
“Darth Vader wouldn’t be nearly as sinister without the legendary performance of James Earl Jones, who voiced Vader in the Star Wars films,” states the announcement on StarWars.com. “Epic and Disney are honored to feature the voice of the late Mr. Jones and thanks his estate for the opportunity to make this happen for players.”
The family of James Earl Jones said the following in a statement:
James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it. We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.
Previously, Disney would use voice actors that sounded like Darth Vader and James Earl Jones in various projects.
How it works
Epic Games also posted a FAQ about the use of the Darth Vader AI in Fortnite.
How it works is that the dialogue of Darth Vader’s responses is AI-generated using Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model, and the audio itself is generated by ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model. No responses are saved for AI-learning.
Players under 13 or their country’s age of digital consent, whichever is higher, will need permission to talk with Darth Vader. These players will see an in-game prompt to get parental permission.
Parents will need to enable a parent control for players to interact with Darth Vader.
When players talk with Darth Vader, the game securely sends the voice audio to Gemini to generate Darth Vader’s response. The voice audio and transcriptions of it are not stored. If you report something Darth Vader says, Epic Games will only receive Darth Vader’s responses.
Players have the ability to report the conversations with Darth Vader.
To talk to Darth Vader, after recruiting Darth Vader, a special Darth Vader button will pop up. Press the button to talk to Vader.
