Discussion Deepfake or Recast? You decide! - Now with Poll

Luke's outfit evolves just like his character, it's starting to change by the time we get to The Mandalorian, he's changed the black tunic of ROTJ for a Jedi style undershirt similar to Anakin's. It's just a natural evolution, like in ROTJ and TM Luke wears tall leather boots but in BOBF he wears puttees/wraps like he wore in ANH and again later in the ST. The way the lighter shades show how he might've transgressed to days before he was a Jedi.

Then again it sells more toys if there's more variations of the same character.

 

I'd say go with neither.

For minor roles it is not that important, especially if the time between the appearances is big. When it comes to playing a character at different ages, I think it is fine to use a different one, provided it fits to the age bracket, and you don't flip flop between actors. Meaning that having Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen play Anakin is fine, so long as you don't suddenly go back to having Jake Lloyd play Anakin at an age older than the one Christensen played him at. There is also a difference between one actor playing the role at age 10 and another at age 20 (a period with a ton of physical development) on one hand, and an actor playing the character at age 25 and another at age 35 on the other hand. Switching actors for the latter is rather glaring, especially when it comes to main roles.

Outside of that, unless you absolutely definately cannot live without a character appearing again, don't use him. If Mark Hamill is too old to play a Luke in his 30s or 40s, then don't have Luke appear in his 30s or 40s. There isn't really a need for the character to appear from a story-telling perspective. He mostly gets added because they can, and because it adds to the nostalgia-factor, not because you cannot write a story without him in it.

 

I think they put Luke in the black outfit because they were afraid the allusion may not work without keeping everything as recognizable as possible.

The thought process being that if the effect doesn't hold up, it would mean people would find it harder to accept the visual if we see him in a costume we didn't recognize. The costume completes the allusion and recognition.

I think if he was wearing white in TBOB, it could end up being kinda to the eye, along with the effect.

 

Why DeepCast when you can ReFake?

 

While it was great to see the Luke Skywalker deep fake in Mando/Boba, (and the Tarkin one in Rogue One) I think it's still best to recast. I had no problem with the casting in the Solo movie. Kennedy's comments about the Solo recast being a mistake I do not think are correct. The movie bombed for other reasons. Look, they just released indy 5 with the actual Harrison Ford, and that bombed too. That was for other reasons.

 

I haven't seen any deepfake that I've found convincing. Not Leia or Tarkin in RO. Not Luke in BoBF. Luke in Mandalorian is kinda close but there is still a lot of work to do to really make it actually convincing. The only replacement of an OT character that convinced me at all was Leia in Rebels.

I respect the desire to see live action Star Wars movies, and there's room for them. I'd just prefer than any movies that take place after ROTJ that involve Han, Luke, Leia, et be done in animation a la Clone Wars. Then you can just deage Mark's voice as Luke, work with the lady who voiced Leia in Rebels and then either see if Harrison wants to be Han or cast a voice actor.

 

The uncanny valley effect shouldn't be much of an issue for Force ghost characters, but, somehow, HC in Ahsoka looked awful.

 

Because there was no force ghost effect. Maybe because the idea isn't for that to be a force ghost.

 

There’s also the option of recasting.

 

I'm surprised deepfake is winning. At the end of the day the acting is more important and deepfake can't give the same level of performance as an actual person which is why I chose recast.

A recasted Luke could theoretically carry a show as the lead, the deepfake could not.

 

It’s really great to see that the poll shows an equal amount of support for recasting as deepfaking. Demonstrates that at least here, there’s not an overwhelming amount of opposition to recasting Star Wars characters. 50% opposition is still high, but hopefully as time passes, attachments to actors will as well, and we’ll see new faces play the OT gang, Anakin, and a number of other important characters.

 

I don't think we will see a recast of Luke post ROTJ. I think they made their decision to go deepfake and now they will likely stick to it. Was it the right decision? Well it was definately the most ambitious and to a point restricting decision. But i think effects wise they just couldnt help themselves knowing they could do a CGI younger Hamill with todays effects.

 

As time passes the deepfake technology is just going to keep improving, making recasting even less likely I think.

 

Plausibly. Though I think it’ll be a long time before a TV show or movie lead is all deepfaked.

 

But consistency is so uneven in other ways. Major differences in tech between the OT, PT and ST era, stylistic differences, etc. To such a degree that I personally think recasting is a pretty light form of inconsistency. Shrug. We’ll see what the future brings.

 

Well, subjectively, sure it’s night and day. That’s a fair opinion to have. And enough fans feels that way that it probably shouldn’t be attempted for now. But I don’t agree. For me, digital animated mannequins disrupt my suspension of disbelief more so than recast characters. I can accept that a different person is interpreting the same character in a story, but I have trouble accepting things that look obviously digital. No brain is the same!

 

If I don't watch the LA shows, ignore the ST and only watch the rest of the films - recast away!!
If I watch the LA shows with deepfake MH, don't ignore the ST with older MH, then I can only agree with a deepfake between the MH portrayals.
I'm using MH as an example because of what's already there.
If you want to show a character younger, or just before the first portrayal of said character by a particular actor - recast.
If you want to show to show a character older, or just after the final portrayal of said character by a particular actor - recast.
If you want to show a character that is between a particular actors first and final portrayals of said character - deepfake (especially when there is already a deepfake there).
It's not as black and white as recast or deepfake.

 

If you’re only concern is surface level physical resemblance, then i guess that follows. But the anti deep fakers are more taking issue with the ethical, cultural and artistic concerns. I know I would rather know that I’m seeing real human skin and speech rather than have a perfect face continuity

 

Alden did a good job as Han.
Glover did a good job as Lando.
RO did a good deepfake as Tarkin.
TBOBF did a good deepfake as Luke.
All 4 used actors. The deepfake used voice actors too.

Six of one and half a dozen of the other.

 

Is there a way they can do a bit of both? Recast but tweek the faces with help from Hamil and Ford?

Is is that the reason actors are going on strike in the first place? I firmly believe and expect that Han and Luke will be in Filoni's movie with Leia having slightly more than a cameo while expecting Ben.

 

Perhaps we should change the poll to reflect that? Unless you have another term to cover all digital recreations? In my post I used the 2 terms in the poll, because I think the examples of Tarkin, possibly Leia and more specifically Luke are what is referred to originally, unless I am mistaken?