James Earl Jones to Voice Darth Vader in Star Wars: Rebels' Premiere on ABC!". Star Wars Episode VII News. October 9, 2014. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. In September 2022, it was confirmed that Jones would retire from voicing the character. His voice was digitally recreated by the company Respeecher for use in Obi-Wan Kenobi using artificial intelligence, and Jones later signed over the rights to his performance for future Star Wars productions. [70] [71] As Anakin Hayden Christensen portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the latter two episodes of the prequel trilogy and other minor film appearances. In 2022, he took over the portrayal of Vader as well.

But everyone did not see favorably thisaccession to power. One of the Date clan vassals deserted for the Ashina clan of the Aizu region. So Masamune declared war on the Ashina fortreason.This declaration of war was the beginning of a bloody campaign in which the young daimyo of Yonezawa subjugated manyneighboring lords, among whom there wererelatives of his family. With these figurines, which are not very different from what is shownin the Star Wars universe, we realize that feudal Japan is undeniably one of the sources of inspiration for Lucasfilm. And this is not surprising, given that George Lucas is a big fan of Akira Kurosawa, a famous Japanese movie director. Vader appears in Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, where he is once again voiced by Jones. [146]Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker have appeared in a number of Star Wars since the earliest days of the franchise, though rarely as a playable character. He plays a central role in the Legends game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008), where he is playable in the first level and later serves as the penultimate boss (and potentially the final boss as well, if the player chooses the Dark Side ending). He also appears in the sequel, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010), as the final boss. Anakin Skywalker". Star Wars Databank. Los Angeles, California: Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011 . Retrieved August 12, 2010. I decided that would be a nice way to tell the Star Wars story. Take the two lowliest characters, as Kurosawa did, and tell the story from their point of view. Which, in the Star Wars case, is the two droids, and that was the strongest influence,” Lucas said. In the original trilogy, David Prowse physically portrayed Vader, while James Earl Jones provided the character's voice. Sebastian Shaw portrayed the unmasked Anakin in Return of the Jedi, as well as the character's spirit prior to the 2004 re-release, when he was replaced by Hayden Christensen as Anakin's Force spirit. The influence of Japanese culture on Star Wars is obvious once you start looking for it. Even if you weren’t aware of Lucas’s fondness for samurai movies or his admiration for Toshiro Mifune, you might already have noticed parallels with Japanese culture in the costumes of many of the characters: Queen Amidala’s dress sense seems to take its cue from Japanese Kabuki costumes… (Left-hand photo: nautiljon.com) Jedi garb is strikingly similar to traditional samurai robes… And Darth Vader’s helmet bears more than a passing resemblance to samurai armour. Star Wars in Japan today

a b Schedeen, Jesse (June 3, 2015). "Star Wars Delivers Huge Change for Han Solo". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on April 12, 2017 . Retrieved December 20, 2016.Gross, Ed (September 30, 2016). "Star Wars: Dave Filoni talks Rebels as well as Rogue One connections". Empire. London, England: Bauer Media Group. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016 . Retrieved November 20, 2016. Agar, Chris (December 16, 2016). "Star Wars: Darth Vader's Rogue One Role Explained". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on November 4, 2022.

Butler, Tom (December 14, 2016). "Rogue One: Why it took multiple actors to play Darth Vader (exclusive)". Yahoo Movies. Archived from the original on December 16, 2016 . Retrieved December 16, 2016. Whitbrook, James (September 14, 2016). "The Art That Inspired Ahsoka and Darth Vader's Epic Duel in Star Wars Rebels". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on December 4, 2021 . Retrieved December 3, 2021. A Star Wars film based on Darth Vader is on the way". The Independent. July 17, 2016. Archived from the original on November 11, 2017 . Retrieved November 10, 2017.Cosmic Princess". catacombs.space1999.net. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019 . Retrieved July 2, 2018. George Lucas has often been transparent about what exactly inspired him to create Star Wars. Specifically, famous Japanese cinematographer Akira Kurosawa and his 1958 film The Hidden Fortress. Lavorgna, Bria (April 26, 2018). "Doctor Aphra Creator Kieron Gillen, Co-Writer Si Spurrier Discuss What's Next for the Fan Favorite". StarWars.com. San Francisco, California: Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on May 3, 2020 . Retrieved August 13, 2020.