Fortnite‘s massive Star Wars seasonal event, Fortnite: Galactic Battle, is currently underway. In it, players can get skins for beloved characters like Poe Dameron, Emperor Palpatine, and Darth Jar Jar Binks and battle on land and in the sky with lightsabers and TIE fighters. One new thing that’s a bit more in the uncomfy category of the game’s merriment is that Epic Games and Disney announced today that players will also be able to chat with Darth Vader, despite his legendary voice actor, James Earl Jones, passing away last year, thanks to AI.
In a new post on Fortnite’s official website, titled “This Will Be a Day Long Remembered: Speak with Darth Vader in Fortnite,” Epic Games revealed that players can “strategize with the ultimate Sith Lord” using their voice. Moreover, Jones’ Darth Vader voice will respond to them in kind, “using conversational AI”—more specifically, Google’s Gemini 2.0 and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 models. The blog post promotes the new feature, stating that players can pick the Sith Lord’s brain about pressing fanboy questions about the Force, the sociopolitical state of the Galactic Empire, and major league gamer strategies for completing the Storm Cycle.
While much of the news smacks of generative AI committing yet another distasteful act of digital necromancy, Epic Games and The Walt Disney Co. expanded upon their decision to implement an AI voice function of Jones’ Vader voice in a separate FAQ page with permission from 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,” the family of James Earl Jones wrote in a statement. “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.”
In addition, Fortnite‘s FAQ page for Darth Vader says players under the age of 13 (or their country’s age of digital consent) must get permission from their parents to speak with Vader, which they can attain in an in-game prompt.
Before Jones’ passing, the actor signed over the rights to his voice to Lucasfilm in 2022, allowing AI to recreate it. Thanks to that, Respeecher, a Ukrainian start-up company that specializes in voice cloning, can recreate Vader’s voice in future Star Wars projects. At the time, it was seen as a pre-emptive move in case the actor had to step back from the role; now, it would appear it is being used to bring him to gaming’s crossover sandbox.
Loserfruit made the AI Darth Vader Swear 😂 pic.twitter.com/bJmPpqGXvf
— Cordial (@ImCordial) May 16, 2025
Regardless of Epic Games, Disney, and the Jones estates’ intent to honor the legendary actor’s legacy by bringing his voice print into the popular battle royale, gamers are still gonna gamer and exploit it for funny content videos. Case in point, Twitch streamer Loserfruit has already got Vader to say “Fuck” in the game, much to her surprise.
The Darth Vader text/voice AI can also tell when you're attempting to bypass its moderation or talk about restricted topics such as self-harm, abuse, eating disorders, or hijacking/jailbreaking the AI. pic.twitter.com/tGhnKnjPtV
— iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) May 16, 2025
Naturally, folks are trying to find out what else they can make Vader say in Fortnite. However, according to Fortnite fan account iFireMonkey on X/Twitter, parameters in Vader’s conversational AI code prevent him from giving his two cents about topics like self-harm, abuse, eating disorders, hijacking, and jailbreaking. Evidently, foodie takes weren’t on Vader’s talking points list.
This isn’t the first time Fortnite‘s well wishes to honor a deceased person’s legacy have blown up on them in the past. In 2021, the game hosted an interactive event to celebrate the legacy of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What wound up happening was players getting awkwardly greeted by a tips loading screen about headshots doing “significant damage” (which Epic Games would later remove), and Fortnite having to disable disrespectful emotes that players would click. At the same time, King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech played in the background. This, in turn, prompted King’s daughter, Bernice King, to distance herself from the event.
Hopefully, this time around, Fortnite‘s Vader AI dealio will stay in the dumb fun content creator sphere of hijinks and won’t drift into unhinged Twitter rant territory.
Update 11:30 a.m. ET: An Epic Games representative provided a statement to Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach announcing that it has patched its Darth Vader AI so it no longer swears, saying, “We pushed a hot fix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again.”
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
