Viral Star Wars Deepfake Updates Luke Skywalker's Appearance in The Mandalorian

A Star Wars fan uses deepfake technology to update Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, Max Lloyd-Jones) [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

A Star Wars fan uses deepfake technology to update Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, Max Lloyd-Jones) as he appears in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. In "Chapter 16: The Rescue," Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and allies attempt a daring rescue aboard Moff Gideon's (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial light cruiser, where an army of Dark Troopers hold Grogu under armed guard. When the durable droids trap Djarin, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), and Mandalorians Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado) inside the ship's control room, it's a hooded hero who rescues them: Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.

When the Jedi removes his black hood, viewers see a de-aged Hamill, now 69, looking as he would some five years after 1983's Return of the Jedi.

"It was very tricky because it's very hard to keep a secret nowadays, especially with Star Wars, because people are so curious about it," series creator and showrunner Jon Favreau told Good Morning America about Hamill's on-set Star Wars return. "There are so many people involved with the process, with visual effects finishing, making it, filming it, the studios, everything."

In the season finale scripted by Favreau and directed by Peyton Reed, Industrial Light & Magic utilized "whatever technology we had available to de-age [Hamill] and try to make him look as much like he did in the old films," Favreau said.

After some online commenters criticized the digital-looking Luke in "The Rescue," a viral deepfake posted by Shamook on YouTube has amassed more than one million views by updating Hamill's appearance in The Mandalorian. Here's what Star Wars fans are saying about Luke Skywalker's return in "The Rescue," which quickly became the highest-rated episode of The Mandalorian and one of the top-rated television episodes of all time as voted by users on IMDb:

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