As the second season of "The Mandalorian" wraps up, a fan uses deepfake technology to recreate some of the scenes in the most authentic, visually-convincing, and edge-cutting way.
YouTuber Shamook from the United Kingdom convincingly and digitally recreates the scene by adding a shocking cameo, making younger Luke look even better. Skin tones, eye details, and mouth movements are well-revamped and now more precise than ever. A deepfake of a deepfake, so to say.
"Using the latest and best in Deep Fake technology, we are creating new alternate realities where you can see your favourite actors in roles they never actually starred in," the YouTuber describes.
In the finale, as depicted in the video, Luke Skywalker shows up with a lightsaber, conversates, and hugs Baby Yoda/Grogu. The technology frees the video from graphical limitations and lets fans see the scenes clearer.
Watch the full video here:
What Is Deepfakes?
While it provides such a life-changing technology, deepfakes could create an alarming threat. What if the future of human actors' movements could be easily replaced with such a much cheaper method?
"Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness leveraging powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence," the video description writes.
Besides, it may also create other dangerous problems and help to spread hoaxes and misinformation. One of the prime examples is when Buzzfeed teamed up with actor Jordan Peele to recreate a Barack Obama deepfakes, cursing and calling Donald Trump names, back in 2017 to alert the danger of the tech.
Earlier this year, a Telegram bot uses deepfakes technology to undress a woman in only one click digitally. At least 680,000 women, mostly underage, reportedly had been the target of the operation before its complete removal from the platform.
While it's usually easy to differentiate between a real video and a deepfakes one, it will become harder to spot as technology progresses.
Another News in the Star Wars Universe
In other news, Hayden Christensen, a Canadian actor known for his role as the villainous Darth Vader, is set to reprise his role in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi show on Disney+.
Lucasfilm confirmed earlier this month that Christensen would join Ewan McGregor, playing as Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the series that will begin filming in March 2021.
"Of course, Anakin and Obi-Wan weren't on the greatest of terms when we last saw them," says the actor in a press release. It will be interesting to see what an amazing director like Deborah Chow has in store for us all. I'm excited to work with Ewan again. It feels good to be back."
That said, if things go smoothly, the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show will air at least by late 2021 or early 2022.
"The Mandalorian" has twon seasons, and it is exclusively available on Disney+.
