A fan who created an improved deepfake version of The Mandalorian's CGI Luke Skywalker has been given a job by Lucasfilm after his creation went viral. A young iteration of Mark Hamill's character made a surprise appearance in the closing scenes of The Mandalorian season 2, though viewers were left a little underwhelmed by the effects employed to involve him. Hamill first portrayed the famous Jedi in 1977's Star Wars, and would return for the remainder of the original trilogy, appearing in both 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi.
Over three decades later Hamill would return for Disney's sequel trilogy, appearing briefly in 2015's The Force Awakens before playing a more prominent role in 2017's The Last Jedi and featuring again in 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment in the nine-part Skywalker saga. Upon his most recent appearance in the franchise, which sees Skywalker take Grogu into his protection in the closing moments of The Mandalorian season 2, it was confirmed a body double was combined with VFX to create the scene. Hamill was still credited for the cameo, as he did in fact return to lend his voice to the iconic character, as well as his likeness.
Shamook is the name of the creator behind the impressive Skywalker deepfake, with a video showing both versions of the character side-by-side receiving more than two million views on YouTube as it stands. It seems it wasn't just fans that were impressed by his work, as the artist confirmed in a comment on a recent video that he'd actually joined Lucasfilm.
"As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilms a few months ago and haven't had the time to work on any new YouTube content. Now I've settled into my job, uploads should start increasing again. They'll still be slow, but hopefully not months apart. Enjoy!"
While the extent of his work with the company isn't specified, Shamook revealed that their job title is Senior Facial Capture Artist. There's an abundance of Star Wars-inspired work across the YouTube channel, including Harrison Ford in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. Shamook's hiring indicates Lucasfilm is planning on using digital de-aging and deepfake technology for their upcoming movies and shows, and it'll be interesting to see how that turns out. The studio was probably aware of the mixed response to Luke in Mandalorian season 2, and are looking for ways to improve future projects.
Hamill himself has previously said he was surprised to have been asked to return in The Mandalorian, teasing that more details surrounding his appearance would feature in an upcoming special on Disney+ which will take fans behind the scenes of the second installment. Plot details for The Mandalorian season 3 have been kept firmly under wraps so far, but filming has reportedly already begun. Given that Mando and Grogu have gone their separate ways, it will be interesting to see if Grogu and Luke feature at all in season 3. A more in-depth look into the history of Mandalore could make for a fascinating and more likely plotline in season 3, but Grogu could factor into The Mandalorian again at some point given his popularity.
Source: Shamook
