James Earl Jones retiring as Darth Vader’s voice

(CNN) – Darth Vader’s deep voice will live on with and without James Earl Jones.

The actor had been recording the legendary “Star Wars” villain’s lines since 1977, but the 91-year-old hasn’t done any voice work for the franchise since 2019.

According to Vanity Fair, Jones took part in an artificial intelligence program that helped recreate his voice for future projects.

A Ukrainian startup called Respeecher worked on developing a version of Jones’ voice that was featured in the Disney+ mini-series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Vanity Fair also reports Jones signed off on the deal to allow his voice to be used in future LucasFilms projects through A.I. and archival recordings.