James Earl Jones concedes rights to his voice as Darth Vader, hints at retirement

James Earl Jones has reportedly signaled to surrender his role of voicing the Star Wars character, Darth Vader after forty years.

According to Vanity Fair, the 91-year-old actor has signed over the rights to his voice to filmmakers using new AI technology.

“He had mentioned he was looking into winding down this particular character,” Matthew Wood of Lucasfilm told the magazine. “So how do we move forward?”

The EGOT winner kicked off his career as the villain in the 1977 rendition of the franchise. He later voiced the character throughout every rendition both on the big and small screens. He most recently starred as the character for the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+.