Dwayne “Deep Fake” Johnson? Disney considered creating a “digital double” of Dwayne Johnson for the live-action Moana, in which the star reprises his role as the bare-chested demigod Maui from the 2016 animated film and its 2024 sequel. The studio planned to have Tanoai Reed — Johnson’s cousin who served as the actor’s stunt double on films like Hercules, Black Adam, and the Jumanji and Fast & Furious franchises — to stand in for Johnson as a body double with an AI deepfake of Johnson’s face imposed over Reed’s performance, according to a new report published in The Wall Street Journal.
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Per the report, Reed “would fill in as a body double for a small number of shots” only for “certain days on set” when Johnson wasn’t present. “Disney would work with AI company Metaphysic to create deepfakes of Johnson’s face that could be layered on top of Reed’s performance in the footage — a ‘digital double’ that effectively allowed Johnson to be in two places at once.”
Metaphysic — which describes itself as an “AI-powered visual effects studio” that delivers “immersive AI realism” across film, television, advertising, music, and live entertainment — has credits on such films as the Robert Zemeckis-directed Here, which digitally recreated actors like Tom Hanks and Robin Wright at different ages in their lives using generative AI technology, and a face replacement for late actor Ian Holm in Alien: Romulus for Disney’s 20th Century Studios.
The company has touted Metaphysic AI’s ability to perform the first-ever live face swap on broadcast television, allowing Eminem to share the stage with his alter-ego Slim Shady at the 2024 MTV Music Video Awards, and resurrecting musical legends Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley for everything from live performances to gin commercials.
According to the Journal, Johnson approved the plan to recreate his likeness with an AI generated deepfake, but “the use of a new technology had Disney attorneys hammering out details over how it could be deployed, what security precautions would protect the data, and a host of other concerns,” including whether the studio could “claim ownership over every element of the film if AI generated parts of it.”
While Disney and Metaphysic “spent 18 months negotiating on and off over the terms of the contract and work on the digital double,” the report adds, “none of the footage will be in the final film when it’s released next summer.”
Photos from the set of the live-action Moana remake leaked online last year, showing Johnson, 53, wore a body suit to recreate Maui’s buff physique. Joel Harlow, an Oscar-winning special makeup effects artist whose credits include Johnson’s Jungle Cruise and Red One, designed the bulky suit “that took a long time to put on.”
“That is a couple of hours every day, of transforming, putting that on,” Johnson told Extra last year in an interview pegged to Moana 2. “We shot outside, and when those pictures surfaced, I was like, ‘S—, we got caught!’ We were putting up walls so there was no paparazzi, but they got in the boats and they started shooting pictures.”
Disney has slated the live-action Moana remake to sail into theaters on July 10, 2026, with Johnson as Maui and Catherine Laga‘aia as the titular wayfinder.
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Image Courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
