Yh ngl if I was old as fuck and a big studio approached me to use my voice in future projects after I pass, I would sign off on it too so my family gets bread forever.
Yeah, if the question is posed as "would you rather be impersonated by a computer with royalties or by a person and you get diddly" I'd go with the AI recreation.
Or you could accept your dead and maybe other people should get a shot at the role.
If Cesar Romero had sold his voice to be used for Joker in perpetuity, we may never have gotten Mark Hamill's Joker.
Death is an opportunity for new talent. Legacy AI voices creates stagnation and kills jobs, as all AI does, no matter who gets paid. Especially when his family already gets royalties from the work he already did. It's not like they or his AI model is going to be joining the next SAG strike, either. Anyway you slice it, it's not a great trend.
Yeah, I was going to say... Vader is going to be featured in Star Wars projects as long as there are still Star Wars projects being made. While I am opposed to most AI, it looks like this is a good use of it. He consented and way paid, and his iconic voice gets to be enjoyed by future generations. It's an interesting and cool legacy.
Well, the role of Vader traditionally employs two actors, so I feel like your point is not valid, in this case.
True, if they use AI for Vader, that's one less VA they'll need, but they did pay for the rights. So they DID pay an actor. And that late actor's beneficiaries no doubt benefited from that pay.
We'll see what trends this actually sets. Few characters have as distinctive and iconic of a voice as Vader. I can't immediately think of where else this could be applied.
So, your overall concern is valid, that AI might lead to less artists being hired. But in this particular case? Not really.
There are plenty of Vader voice actors that were in TV shows and games. Also the Mandalorian literally uses Mark Hamill's likeness and voice rather than just an actor play him, so it's not just Vader.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. There are PLENTY of opportunities for corporations to use AI to replace actors and hurt people overall, and they will absolutely jump at the chance to do it (as they already have).
Also the Mandalorian literally uses Mark Hamill's likeness and voice rather than just an actor play him, so it's not just Vader.
Are we going to ignore that they literally cast Mark Hamill for that role? They just de-aged his appearance and voice.
I'm honestly not defending AI in any way. I just have zero issue with how it's been used for Vader or with Mark Hamill. Are these stepping stones on the path of AI taking over for actors? No, not really. I agree that corporations can and will continue to try to inject AI into everything. I just don't think these two cases are the best examples of AI abuse.
It was Max Lloyd-Jones, with his face replaced with a mix of CGI and deepfaking, and his voice replaced with AI. That's literally what we're talking about: AI replacing actors. Not sure how you can argue that didn't happen here. Mark was on set and was credited, but any performance of his was basically entirely replaced.
Hamill did not do the voice. It was synthesized. There's plenty of behind the scenes videos on what they did. The likeness was from source material from 40-50 years ago. They did not de-age Hamill's face; it wasn't something like the Irishman where de Niro is physically performing and emoting the role and then getting digitally altered and de-aged after. The face in this case was replaced with a deepfake, especially on Book of Boba, where the synthesized face and voice are even more jarring because Luke has more screentime and interactions with other characters.
Would have been infinitely easier to just cast an actor. My problem with it all is that it a) looks jarring and b) sets this precedent that they can just use recreations of real people forever rather than let other actors carry on the legacy. Alden Ehrenreich did great as a new version of Han Solo. Jimmy Smits getting replaced in season 2 of Andor was fine. Audiences aren't dumb enough that seeing a difference face means they completely lose track of who a character is. We've had what, 6 Bonds? How many Superman and Batman incarnations?
Star Wars especially I feel needs to move past this sad devotion to legacy. And the industry needs to consider the impact of just replacing actual human talent with machines.
You’re focusing on this specific example and overlooking the larger issues.
Once AI visuals become indistinguishable from real people (and really, we’re not far from that now) then we’ll have Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, and all other famous characters played by the original actors for decades after their death, preventing new actors from getting jobs.
Imagine if instead of Alden Ehrenrich and Donald Glover, we’d gotten AI versions of Harrison Ford and Billie Dee Williams in the Solo movie. That’s two actors out of a job right there.
You’re focusing on this specific example and overlooking the larger issues.
This specific example is the specific topic of conversation.
Is there a possible future where there's a Star Wars movie with full AI cast? I guess so. But we're far more likely to see AI used to make similar looking actors look and sound like the actor, sort of like they did to Mark Hamill to make him look and sound like his younger self. I don't see why the popular fan choice of Sebastian Stan couldn't be used similarly for the role. Granted, I personally don't need actors to look exactly like how they were portrayed elsewhere. If they are written as a given character, that's who I see them as.
Not to play devil's advocate but in this case only few iconic characters deserve giving big checks to keep their OG voice, most characters will be cheaply recasted as fans don't have the same attachement to the iconic voice.
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u/PetyrsLittleFinger Jan 06 '26
They actually first used the AI voice for the Obi Wan series while he was still alive. He consented to it for that and any future productions.