When Star Wars hit cinemas in 1977 it blew people's minds with what cinema could accomplish, and few characters could match the menacing presence of Darth Vader.
By now you probably know that it was two people who brought Vader to life, with Dave Prowse being the physical actor for the terrifying Sith Lord while James Earl Jones gave Vader his voice.
That deep, authoritative voice helped give Vader some gravitas as he bossed everybody about and was generally a very menacing and evil guy.
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However, Earl Jones only added in his vocal performance in post-production, when they were actually acting out the scenes on set the lines were delivered by Prowse.
His strong West Country accent doesn't really sound like the right voice for a Dark Lord of the Sith though, and if you listen to it you'll understand why.
All in all it's probably better for everyone involved that Vader got a new voice, though every legend has to retire at some point.
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If we are to see Darth Vader again it'll be with the voice of James Earl Jones, but produced by an artificial intelligence with his consent.
Earl Jones has allowed Disney to use old recordings of his vocal work as Vader and let an AI recreate the iconic voice from here on out.
When he most recently gave his voice to Vader, in last year's TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was credited as providing the vocal work but what he heard was actually generated by an AI.
The actor provided guidance on how to do it properly, because of course who else could better suggest how Vader would speak than James Earl Jones?
Prowse and Earl Jones weren't the only actors to portray Vader on the big screen either, as at the end of Return of the Jedi when his helmet is removed and he can speak to Luke he's played by Sebastian Shaw.
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How much Vader will feature in Star Wars projects going forward is anyone's guess, he's one of the franchise's most iconic characters but we've seen plenty of his story and there might not be all that many opportunities to see him again.
Hayden Christensen has floated the idea of a Vader series on Disney+ and he thinks there's 'more to explore' so there might still be some mileage in the iconic baddie yet.
Vader's appearance was briefly shown in recent Star Wars series Ahsoka, though for the most part Christensen stayed out of the costume and kept his Anakin look going.
Featured Image Credit: LucasfilmTopics: Star Wars, TV and Film, Celebrity