Are we truly ready for digital re-creations of our favorite actors to take over our screens? Or will technology leave us stranded in the Uncanny Valley?

Let’s get right into it and take a look at the Disney+ Original The Book of Boba Fett. Now, we should be far enough removed to not offend the No Spoilers crowd. But if you haven’t caught up yet, skip the next paragraph.

Yes, the rumors are true: Luke Skywalker wasn’t played by Mark Hamill. 

Before you go down a rabbit hole to see who the new Skywalker is, rest assured – it was still based on Hamill’s depiction of an orphan farm boy turned Jedi Master. But since The Book of Boba Fett was shot right around the time Hamill rounded the sun for the 70th time, filming a Grogu training sequence would be a bit out of his acting age range (being 40 years older than his on-screen character). This means that a lot of CGI and deepfake technology went into recreating the younger Skywalker, including an AI-synthesized voice. And although there’s still room for improvement, we can all agree that the CGI Skywalker in TBBF is much further along than his initial appearance in the season two finale of The Mandalorian. 

Whether we’re ready or not, digital actors (also known as “virtual actors”) are not new to the scene. The idea of having digital actors portray real people was in Michael Crichton’s Looker, released in 1981. A lot of Hollywood’s finest have also been digitally cloned as simulations, or have at least had their heads scanned by lasers for future computer modeling. Not to mention, video games have been employing digital actors for years, but that’s a topic for a future Hype VS Reality post, I imagine. But what other digital actors are out there, and who is doing it well? It varies widely. 

You have Alita: Battle Angel, where the protagonist is a completely computer-generated character. You’ll recognize Rosa Salazar clear as day, but my, what big eyes she has! Ultimately, this next-level motion capture and meticulous CG detailing helped audiences really connect with the photoreal cyborg character on screen. 

And then there are the efforts that heavily de-age someone, such as Will Smith in Gemini Man. In the movie, Smith plays a 51-year-old assassin who is pitted against his 23-year-old self created from his own DNA. As Smith tries to outwit himself for nearly two hours, it’s harder to say if the audience feels outwitted by his digitized younger self. General consensus is that the deepfake didn’t quite connect.

While there are very real ethical concerns with what this technology can be used for, it has practical uses as well, such as bringing Brandon Lee’s digital likeness to life to finish the filming of The Crow after his death. The same rings true for bringing back Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin for Rogue One. While Carrie Fisher gave her blessing for the key “Hope” scene, Peter Cushing who plays Tarkin did not, as he passed away in 1994. So who owns likeness rights once an actor is digitized?

The media was buzzing with the rumor that Bruce Willis sold his digital rights this year, but this was in fact not true. While Deepcake created his “digital twin” using over 34,000 images for a Russian commercial, Bruce’s digital rights still belong to Bruce. Yippie ki-yay! But since his family announced his retirement from acting due to an aphasia diagnosis, is this a way to keep him on screen for years to come? 

The final question we should ask is…are audiences even receptive to digital portrayals of actors? From the latest string of Disney’s live-action remakes like The Lion King and Beauty and The Beast to Andy Serkis’ Gollum in The Lord of the Rings to all of those blue aliens in Avatar – which releases its sequel this December – I’d say we already are! And with the case of Luke Skywalker’s de-aging CGI trip down memory lane, audiences got aboard the spaceship because of Mark Hamill’s heavy behind-the-scenes involvement in the process. I’m not on the fence, this technology is not just hype: it’s going to be a big part of our future. Where do you stand?