AI continues to disrupt the entertainment industry, and the Star Wars franchise has long been at the cutting edge of using technology to extend the lives of characters first debuted in the original trilogy. So far, James Earl Jones and Mark Hamill have consented to the AI immortalization of their voices and likeness, respectively. Now, actor Katee Sackhoff is debating whether she will join their ranks.
Per ComicBook, she admitted that she is not against the idea of consenting to generate an AI likeness of her character Bo-Katan Kryze on The Mandalorian, explaining:
“I mean, if my family reaps the benefit of that? Yeah, of course.”
However, Sackhoff acknowledged that she felt trepidation about the legal and ethical implications posed by the rise of AI and what it might mean concerning the legacy of performing artists.
“It’s a really slippery slope. I’ve done everything in my power to position myself in a place in my career. and I’ve turned a lot of things down because I wanted to make sure that I had control of the way that I was viewed and the way that I was perceived and the image that I portrayed and the morals that I pulled with me throughout my career. If somebody is just out there copying you and your voice and they can have you do whatever they want, that’s not ok. It’s not ok. So, I don’t know. I think it’s a scary thing.” I think it’s a scary thing but at the same time I can’t imagine that a deal like that would be struck without some really, really, really strict legal work done.”
The Star Wars franchise has always been known for using cutting-edge technologies to transport audiences to that faraway galaxy. George Lucas relied on Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to create the special effects in the original Star Wars movies before moving on to Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). In 2022, Disney confirmed that it would recreate the voice of James Earl Jones as Darth Vader using Respeecher’s voice-cloning AI speech software. The Mandalorian utilized the same technology to reproduce the voice of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
Incidentally, in the case of art imitating life, droids like R2D2 and C-3P0 were operated using artificial intelligence. Ironically, the concept of AI existed in the Star Wars universe long before it was accessible to people in the real world.
The Mandalorian is currently streaming on Disney Plus.
