Voice Actors vs Fortnite: The dispute that started over Darth Vader’s voice

The death of James Earl Jones shook the world of cinema. His powerful and distinguishable voice was a key part of many films, including Star Wars. Despite his departure, Jones had already prepared for his voice to live on forever, and be used with AI so that future iterations of Darth Vader could continue to speak. However, no one expected Fortnite to take advantage of this, and now SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of actors, has shown its displeasure at this use.

What is going on in Fortnite with Darth Vader?

To understand this complaint, you have to look at what’s happening in Fortnite. The current Star Wars-focused season is right at the halfway point, and with that Darth Vader has arrived as an NPC that can join your team. One of the interesting details that comes with this powerful NPC, is that the player can interact with the Sith Lord, speaking and receiving a response with Jones’ voice. All thanks to artificial intelligence, where the player’s audio is sent to Gemini to generate a response for the character. The answers range from things related to Star Wars, to situations about the game, referring to your character’s name. However, the internet, being the internet, has made Vader cursing and using inappropriate phrases.

In light of this, SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice report with the National Labor Relations Board last Monday, claiming that the use of AI in Fortnite violates the union’s right to negotiate changes to its bargaining agreement.

“While the union is generally very supportive of employers’ use of A.I. as a tool to enhance the audience experience, employers cannot implement use of such tools without involving the union first,” a union spokeswoman said in a statement. “If they fail to do so, the union will seek to hold them accountable.”

Although the use of James Earl Jones’ voice is protected by his family and state, there are certain details that go beyond the inseparable relationship between the voice and the Star Wars character. We definitely would not have thought in any universe to hear Darth Vader say Skibidi Toilet.

Whether the union’s complaint will be successful remains to be seen.

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