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As part of its new crossover with Star Wars, Fortnite has made Darth Vader more of a cyborg than ever before — and now it’s facing an unfair labor practice charge from federal agency the National Labor Relations Board as a result.

It was announced last week that Darth Vader’s voice in Fortnite’s current Galactic Battle season will be provided by conversational AI. Specifically a combination of two different AI elements: the dialogue will be created by Google’s 2.0 Flash model, which will then be generated into voice by ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 model, as per reports. The move is supported by the estate of James Earl Jones, whose performance as Darth Vader is being used as the source material for the AI. “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 estate said 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.”

While the family’s support may convince some skeptics, it doesn’t win favor with the Screen Actors Guild; SAG-AFTRA released a statement Monday condemning the decision on behalf of Epic Games and production company Llama Productions.

“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," the statement reads. "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.”

The charge, which can be seen here, reads in part, “Within the past six months, [Llama Productions LLC] 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.”

Now that the charge has been made, the NLRB will investigate in a process that traditionally takes somewhere between 7-14 weeks, per the board. If the charge is supported, the NLRB will attempt to facilitate a settlement between the parties; if that is not possible, an official complaint will be lodged against Llama Productions and will proceed from that point.

The complaint comes in the midst of an ongoing voice actor strike called by SAG-AFTRA, which started in July 2024 and remains ongoing as of writing. The strike was explicitly called following a breakdown in negotiations between the guild and video game manufacturers surrounding AI protections for its members. Which is to say, the very thing this NLRB complaint is addressing. 

Keep your eyes on Popverse for future developments on this story as they emerge.

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