The Star Wars: Maul Finale Made Me Think The Impossible: It's Time To Recast Darth Vader

Spoilers for "Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord" Season 1 follow.

The passing of actor James Earl Jones in 2024 means that Darth Vader has lost his voice. Jones voiced Vader across the first three "Star Wars" films, and returned to the role several times; prequel trilogy finale "Revenge of the Sith," cartoon series "Star Wars: Rebels," etc. Jones' baritone is an essential part of the Dark Lord's menacing charm, and his passing leaves future "Star Wars" projects that want to feature Vader in a bind.

Yes, Vader canonically met his end in "Return of the Jedi," but even though his story is technically over, he's the greatest villain in pop culture. Darth Vader isn't going anywhere. Case in point, he just appeared in the Season 1 finale of the animated series "Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord." This episode, "The Dark Lord," pits Maul (Sam Witwer) against Vader, a battle "Star Wars" fans have longed for, that also fills in a gap from "Star Wars: Rebels" suggesting the former and present Darth had once fought each other.

The episode gets around Jones' unavailability by having Vader say nothing — the only sound he makes is his famous atmosphere-setting breathing. For this particular story, that was a good call. Despite his dry wit, Vader defines himself through actions first. Here, he's in full death machine mode, mercilessly pursuing his prey who don't even have time to try to understand who he is.

Vader's silence resembles famed slasher villains like Michael Myers in "Halloween," as it did at the end of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" when he wordlessly slashed through a hall of dead men walking. But Lucasfilm can only keep Vader quiet, and avoid a recast, for so long.

Shortly before his death, James Earl Jones stepped away from voicing Vader. As reported by Vanity Fair, he gave Lucasfilm permission to use archival recordings of his voice to create new dialogue via generative artificial intelligence; Vader's voice was in the 2022 series "Obi-Wan Kenobi" created by the AI company Respeecher.

Even though Jones himself signed off, AI and the allure for cost (and quality) cutting is something creative industries must stand against. Voice actors are at particular risk of being displaced by AI, because it's easier to generate a replicated voice than it is a whole human being. From 2024-2025, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) conducted a strike against video game companies specifically over uses of AI.

Any creative ethics aside, an AI voice simply isn't as good as a real human actor. Vader's lines in "Obi-Wan Kenobi" sounded quite stiff and inert, which was particularly wrong for that story. Vader was hunting Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) single-mindedly, coming face to face with the man who maimed him, casting him down into the fiery damnation and armored black Hell he lives in every day. None of that emotion comes through in Vader's words.

It's not like there's a shortage of Jones/Vader impressions out there, either. Actor Scott Lawrence has voiced Vader in several "Star Wars" video games and does a commendable job as Jones' understudy. Vader's appearance in "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," voiced by Lawrence? Genuinely chilling.

Darth Vader may be more machine than man, but only another actor can give his voice the soul that James Earl Jones once did.

"Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord" is streaming on Disney+.