It didn’t take long after Epic Games unleashed famous Star Wars Sith lord Darth Vader into the game Fortnite — complete with the AI-enabled voice of late actor James Earl Jones for conversations with players — for Vader to drop the F-bomb.
As seen on multiple social-media videos, Vader can be prompted to say lots of things you wouldn’t find in a Star Wars script, such as curse words, “Skibidi toilet” and to share his thoughts on breasts.
A representative from Epic Games pointed to a post on X saying that the company has already addressed the apparent lack of language filtering. The post reads, “We pushed a hotfix immediately and this shouldn’t happen again.”
But gamers were apparently able to capture footage of inappropriate banter from Vader in the time before the fix was issue. Epic is asking gamers to report any additional problems.
Safety filters to stop the swearing
A representative for Epic Games told CNET that there are three layers of safety filters built into the feature to prevent this from happening again.
Also, parents must enable the option to “allow voice and written communication with AI features” for kid accounts to speak with Vader.
And even the Dark Lord of the Sith can still get kicked out of the game.
“If a player is repeatedly attempting to get Darth Vader to violate our settings and instructions, he will eventually leave the squad, and the player will be unable to recruit him again in that gameplay session,” the representative said. “If we become aware or receive a bug report that Darth Vader in Fortnite responded in a way he shouldn’t, we investigate it and if needed, make adjustments to avoid similar responses in the future.”
Where is this F-bomb dropping Vader?
It’s likely you’ve missed the window to have an R-rated conversation with Luke Skywalker’s father — although you can find clips that others have saved and posted on social media.
But Vader can still be found in Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode in the Samurai’s Solitude area in the southwest of the map. Your party can recruit the new Vader, who replaced Samurai Vader, and have an AI chatbot conversation with him. Epic used Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model for the responses.
The family of Jones, who voiced the character since the first Star Wars movie, gave Epic permission to use his voice with AI models.
“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 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.”
SAG-AFTRA strikes back
The new Fortnite Vader feature has drawn the ire of SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors and voiceover artists, among other trades.On May 19, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Fortnite’s signatory 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,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement, “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.
“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.”
