The 91-year-old has lent his voice to one of the most cult characters in cinema for 45 years: Darth Vader. But this deep, breathy voice now looks set to be provided by artificial intelligence, reports Vanity Fair.

The American actor has signed over the rights to his voicing of the character Darth Vader to Lucasfilm, which owns the “Star Wars” franchise, in order to develop a computer-generated voice.

Behind this project is a Ukrainian start-up called Respeecher, which drew on the audio archives of James Earl Jones’ work to build the AI voice. This artificial voice can already be heard in the series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney +.

The Star Wars franchise previously called on technology to recreate Princess Leia in CGI after the death of Carrie Fisher, for “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019.

According to Lucasfilm’s Matthew Wood, the actor known for the vocal role agreed to the project as he too is keen to keep Darth Vader alive. James Earl Jones began voicing the legendary Star Wars antagonist in 1977’s “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.”

Audio has been carving out a growing place in the entertainment world in recent years. With the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated increase in screen time, audio has become an alternative form of entertainment.

Indeed, computer-generated voices have already found their audience on social media, and could now be branching out into the movie business, it seems.