Ever dreamt of having a conversation with the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader? In Fortnite‘s latest season, that dream is now a reality, Star Wars fans.
In an addition to a bevy of Star Wars-themed blasters, lightsabers and the chance to fight Darth Vader and his Stormtrooper entourage in Galactic Battle Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3, players can now talk to Vader as well, thanks to an AI chatbot modeled after James Earl Jones’ iconic baritone voice.
The experimental Fortnite Darth Vader AI conversation feature, which uses Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model was implemented with the consent of James Earl Jones’ estate, who released the following 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.”
Despite the permission from the late James Earl Jones’ family, the Fortnite Darth Vader AI conversation feature is still drawing concerns from voice actors in the industry, with SAG-AFTRA, the labor union for American actors, expressing their concerns — particularly the fact that the Fortnite Darth Vader AI conversation feature could have been applied with an actual voice actor carrying on in James Earl Jones’ tradition, much like voice actor Troy Baker emulating Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
“We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement.
“However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.”
The labor union added that they’ve filed an unfair labor practice charge against Epic Games and their signatory company, Llama Productions, for choosing to “replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology.”
They continued, ““Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions.”
As of this writing, Epic has yet to respond to the SAG-AFTRA complaint.
Do you think that the Fortnite Darth Vader AI conversation is a fun feature that has earned its spot in the game due to consent from the James Earl Jones estate? Or should features of this nature be reconsidered due to replacing real actors with AI? Let us know in the comments.
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