Imagine having the ability to make Darth Vader, Star Wars‘ most eloquent villain, say whatever you want him to say. Fortnite players have been having a blast doing just that since the feature was introduced. But now there’s controversy attached to this new iteration of the iconic character—and it has nothing to do with him uttering too many f-bombs. Instead, it has to do with SAG-AFTRA’s prescribed procedure on the use of AI voices.
In a post last week on Fortnite’s website announcing that players can now “strategize with the ultimate Sith Lord … and he’ll respond back using conversational AI,” Epic Games is careful to note that this was only made possible by the express permission of the late, great James Earl Jones’ estate.
“James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it,” reads a statement attributed to Jones’ family. “We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.”
Talking directly to Darth Vader—he’s now a boss in Battle Royale, swapping in for the Samurai Vader that has been a part of the game’s ongoing Star Wars event—is indeed a cool opportunity for fans of Jones and Star Wars alike. But actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which famously foregrounded the use of AI as one of its key issues during the 2023 industry strikes, is now saying Fortnite didn’t go through the proper channels before adding Darth Vader’s AI voice to the game.
The union has now filed an unfair labor practice charge (link to the PDF is on the SAG-AFTRA website) that calls out “Fortnite‘s signatory company, Llama Productions” for “[replacing] the work of human performers with AI technology” without “providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms.”
The union notes that it’s not against the general idea here: “We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles.”
The problem is that the AI being used here makes human voice actors obsolete, and “we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.”
So far there’s been no response from Epic Games on the filing. The Hollywood Reporter notes that despite the SAG-AFTRA’s still-ongoing Interactive Media Agreement strike, which has been stuck for months on negotiating “AI protections for voice actors in video games,” actors can actually work on Fortnite without violating the strike, since the game falls under an exception for titles that were in production before August 2023.
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