When Fortnite players meet Darth Vader in the game’s ongoing Star Wars event, they will be able to speak with the Sith Lord directly, and he’s going to respond with a voice that sounds exactly like James Earl Jones.
Though Darth Vader has previously appeared as an NPC (and a battle pass skin) in Fortnite, Epic Games announced today that the character’s latest outing will be a bit different thanks to the use of AI. After finding and defeating Vader on the map, players can recruit him onto their teams and speak directly with him using Fortnite’s in-game audio chat functionality. And Vader will respond in an AI recreation of James Earl Jones’ iconic voice whose answers vary depending on what players.
Per a FAQ about the interactive feature, Epic says that Vader’s answers will be based on audio recordings of player’s voices that are sent directly to Gemini. Player audio and transcriptions of their voices will not be stored, though Epic will have access to transcriptions of Vader’s responses for instances in which players report what the character says. The company also says that it will “not use any of your interactions with Darth Vader to train AI models.” Additionally, players under the age of 13 or their country’s age of digital consent will need parental permission to use the feature.
The note about reporting Vader’s responses implies that the AI-voiced character might be able to say inappropriate things Epic, Disney, and Lucasfilm wouldn’t approve of. And, as Twitch streamer Loserfruit demonstrated earlier today, that seems to be very much the case. Following Loserfruit’s stream, Epic said it pushed a patch to prevent Vader from saying “fuck.”
In a statement about the feature, Epic explained that Vader’s voice was created using Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 models. The studio also said Vader “wouldn’t be nearly as sinister” without Jones’ performance, and thanked Jones’ estate for signing off on the collaboration. Jones’ family echoed Epic’s sentiments, and said that the late actor “always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience” Star Wars’ with his voice in 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,” the family said.
Before his death last September, Jones signed off on a deal with AI startup Respeecher that gave the company the rights to recreate his voice for Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The deal was just one example of Disney and Lucasfilm’s desire to keep the Star Wars films and series running with digital recreations of its original cast.