Lucasfilm hires deepfake expert who one-upped The Mandalorian!
San Francisco, California - The deepfake digital version of the world's favorite Jedi Luke Skywalker was "off" enough to immediately draw criticism of The Mandalorian's special effects team when it was revealed on the TV show. Now, Lucasfilm has hired the anonymous YouTuber who posted a version that fans agreed was much more realistic.
Granted, digitally de-aging actor Mark Hamill was a laborious process not often attempted in Hollywood, but when a YouTuber named Shamook posted their own version of a young Skywalker, the entire industry took notice.
Their version was so good in fact, that Industrial Light and Magic, the computer special effects company under Lucasfilm, has announced they have taken on Shamook as a "senior facial capture artist," according to IndieWire.
"[Industrial Light and Magic is] always on the lookout for talented artists and have in fact hired the artist that goes by the online persona 'Shamook'," a Lucasfilm spokesperson shared.
Perhaps more impressive than the results themselves was that Shamook managed to engineer them a mere four days after the episode aired on Disney+.
De-aging a facial image is such a new art that many directors resort to recasting roles with younger actors instead of risking audiences being dissatisfied with a digitalized actor that looks slightly off.
Shamook still chooses to remain anonymous despite being recruited into one of the most prestigious film companies in the world.
"As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilm a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content," they wrote in a comment on their channel earlier this month.
"Now I’ve settled into my job, uploads should start increasing again. They’ll still be slow, but hopefully not months apart. Enjoy!" they added,
Hopefully with Shamook on the payroll, the next season of The Mandalorian will look even better than the last did!
Cover photo: IMAGO / Coldrey