Like them or loathe them, deepfakes are here to stay in film and TV. De-aging tech has been around for more than a decade at this point and has progressed from the rubbery and unnatural scenes in films like X-Men: The Last Stand to the spookily convincing work seen in Captain Marvel and the recent trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
That movie looks set to deliver a completely convincing younger version of Harrison Ford, which naturally led fans to wonder whether they could give the same treatment to Han Solo in Star Wars. After all, Lucasfilm now has a perfect digital replica of Ford, so why can’t he pop up in The Mandalorian‘s third season?
Now some feel that it’s only a matter of time before Luke, Han, and Leia once again share a scene together, though others are questioning whether this is really necessary:
But there are naysayers who feel that recasting the role is the way forward:
But Harrison Ford is famously reticent about returning to Star Wars. He agreed to do The Force Awakens so long as Han died, and only appeared in The Rise of Skywalker as a tribute to his dearly departed friend Carrie Fisher:
But another user points out that Hamill and Ford may not have a choice in the matter, though we doubt Lucasfilm would want the PR nightmare of using Ford’s likeness without him signing off on it on some level:
Using Hamill and Ford is one thing, but it’s a different matter altogether to bring back Carrie Fisher from the dead, as she’s not around to consent. It’s notable that The Rise of Skywalker‘s posthumous performance wasn’t a deepfake or CGI recreation, but instead used unused footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi:
Many fans see the sequel trilogy as dropping the ball for never reuniting Hamill, Ford, and Fisher on screen together one last time, so if they did reappear as deepfakes at least we could get that:
This tech has evolved rapidly over the last few years, so we’re excited and nervous to see where it goes over the rest of the decade. Star Wars has already proved that it’s willing to embrace it to bring back classic characters, so seeing this iconic trio in their prime is likely a matter of when and not if.