3 hours ago
1
Arts|Fortnite’s Darth Vader Is A.I.-Powered. Voice Actors Are Rebelling.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/arts/fortnite-darth-vader-ai-voice.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The actors’ union that began striking against video game companies last summer has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite.
May 20, 2025, 5:45 p.m. ET
Months after the death of James Earl Jones, the booming voice of Darth Vader, Fortnite players are having in-game conversations with the “Star Wars” villain about being a Jedi and his conflict with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sometimes his responses have been witty: “I sense no connection to the force within you.” Others were comedic, with Darth Vader telling one curious player that lightsabers were weapons, “not gardening tools.”
Thank — or blame — artificial intelligence.
A few years before Jones died, he agreed to let A.I. learn from archival recordings of his vocal performance, and his estate has publicly supported the actor’s presence in Fortnite. But the new collaboration has been contentious because of a larger battle over A.I. that has led actors to strike against video game companies for more than nine months.
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing tens of thousands of actors, filed an unfair labor practice charge on Monday that said the use of A.I. to generate Jones’s voice in Fortnite had violated the union’s right to negotiate changes to its bargaining agreement.
The charge, which was filed with the National Labor Relations Board, accuses Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Epic Games, of “making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment” without providing notice to the union or allowing the opportunity to bargain.
David Hoppe, a managing partner at Gamma Law, a law firm that focuses on media and technology industries, said the complaint was subject to challenge on a number of fronts.
