SAG-AFTRA Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against Epic Games’ ‘Fortnite’ Over AI Darth Vader
Mario Bautista
SAG-AFTRA have found their lack of money disturbing, as they didn’t get a cut from the late James Earl Jones’ voice being used via AI for Darth Vader in a Star Wars themed Fortnite event. Despite the late actor granting permission for his voice to be used via AI for the iconic character, and the consent of his family, the labor union have filed an unfair labor practice charge against Epic Games.
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The ongoing Star Wars event has a rather noteworthy feature beyond new weapons, skins, and maps. Should players find and defeat Darth Vader in Fortnite, he can become a companion that will fight alongside you. Using AI, you can talk to him using voice chat.
Vader’s responses and voice were crafted with AI courtesy of Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model (for the dialogue), and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model for the audio.
Considering the Sith Lord’s low tolerance for failure in canon, he is surprisingly kind to his new “apprentices” – encouraging players to get good, praising them, and even asking them seek out real-life help if he thinks they’re in trouble or suicidal. He’ll even comfort those who lost loved ones (with reassuring words that probably would have done him some good).
Of course, being more machine now than man, the system isn’t perfect.
Viral clips have shown Vader hating the sequel trilogy, saying “hawk tuah,” and asking what “Skibidi Toilet” is. Players using Jedi mind tricks – or rather bypass the AI’s censor filters through sheer luck – caused Vader to dismay at them. He swears, says racial slurs, when trying to get his opinion of Pride Month mid-battle (and dismissal of the conversation being taken as dismissal of Pride).
After the swearing clip, Epic Games told Kotaku reporters “We pushed a hot fix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again.” There are also parental controls for the feature, and players can report Vader’s conversations.
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All this only magnified concerns people had over using the late James Earl Jones’ voice. However, he had granted the right for his voice to be used with AI to voice Darth Vader forevermore in 2022. The news was reiterated after his death in September last year.
Epic Games expressed their reverence for Jones’ performance in a news post discussing the AI Vader feature. “Darth Vader wouldn’t be nearly as sinister without the legendary performance of James Earl Jones, who voiced Vader in the Star Wars films. We’re honored to feature the voice of the late Mr. Jones and we thank his estate for the opportunity to make this happen for players.”
The family of Jones was also quoted, stating “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. 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.”
So that should be the end right? Earl Jones consented for his voice to be used via AI, and his family and Epic Games both agreed to use it in Fortnite. Well, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) are trying to alter the deal, and those involved are likely praying they don’t alter it further.
“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. However, 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,” SAG-AFTRA insisted.
“Fortnite‘s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology. Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions,” SAG-AFTRA revealed.”
The accompanying filing explains “Within the past six months, the Employer [Llama Productions], by its agents and representatives, failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union by making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment, without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain, by utilizing AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work on the Interactive Program Fortnite.”
The move didn’t go over well on social media, as the video game voice actors strike is still ongoing since July 2024.
While SAG-AFTRA released strict guidelines for the video game industry to use AI for video game voice acting (via a tech company of their choosing) in January that same year, the strike is ostensibly about preventing AI being used to avoid voice actors being paid fairly. The union claims gaming industry big-wigs could use actors’ past performances for AI, without telling or paying the actors in question.
The strike has been going so long, voice actors are being replaced in games such as Zenless Zone Zero and Genshin Impact. This is despite having signed a deal in August 2024 to allow members to “safely” lend their voice to AI for adverts, and their approval of the “fully consented” Ethovox foundational voice model since December 2024.
As such, some on social media took the filing by SAG-AFTRA as a sign they are more interested in getting their share of pay, rather than protecting the careers of their own union members.
“Oh my god they actually wrote this,” YouTuber Madam Savvy dismayed. “They signed with Ai companies without holding a vote after the hollywood strike to ensure they got money from the ai companies. Theyre mad they arent getting a cut.”
“They are trying to bully international companies into forcibly working with them, and theyre trying to monopoly all this bullshit. If anyone had a spine, theyd cancel their SAG contracts. What a joke. The estate agreed to this with epic, you have no reason to be involved,” Savvy reasoned.
Game developer @DigitalAlucard was far less polite. “You guys are r——d. I know James Earl Jones was a member of SAG-AFTER [sic] and a board member of SAG. But what excuse do you have to do this? James passed away, he is no longer a member because of that.”
“Not only that but while he was alive he signed on to allow Disney to use his AI to provide the voice of Darth Vader for future generations to enjoy. Even his family approved of it. Now Disney has a working partnership with Epic Games, meaning not only does Disney have legal rights to use his voice for AI but they allowed Epic the same liberty for the current season of Fortnite.”
“You guys are out of line. F–k off you mafia.”
As an aside, SAG-AFTRA does offer residuals and payments of deceased members via their wills and trusts.
“I swear this union has done more damage to va [voice actor’s] reputation than help,” @EnnuiKeaton fumed. “Ever since the genshin incident many of the members are hated and people are sick and tired of them and their defenders. Several va got recast and I can see companies avoiding hiring anyone from sag after that.”
Nonetheless, some were still concerned about AI replacing voice actors, like @Oswald_A_Lisker. “First, f–k unions. Those parasitic organizations make everything worse for the customer.”
“But. I agree in this instance that I don’t like the idea of AI voices used in this capacity. There are a lot of voice actors that do a good job with Vader, this can be abused heavy by corpos.”
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Source: SAG-AFTRA Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against Epic Games’ ‘Fortnite’ Over AI Darth Vader
