The Doom franchise has been in the spotlight quite a bit following the success of id Software's Doom (2016) and its sequel Doom Eternal, which speedrunners are already making impressive headway with. One fan decided to go all the way back to the original first-person shooter Doom to see what the first rendition of its iconic protagonist Doomguy would look like if his model was transposed into a modern, hyper-realistic render.

A Reddit user named Panishev posted images of a pixelated Doomguy's face from the UI of Doom on MS-DOS transitioning into what many could argue looks to be a real-life actor's headshot on the r/gaming subreddit today. Panishev said they used AI to enhance the original image, and in just four hours since it was uploaded the post has over 12,000 upvotes and nearly 550 comments as of this writing.

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Some of the top comment threads joke about AI Doomguy's uncanny resemblance to the generic army sergeant archetype that has been seen in hundreds of movies, but a particularly fun set of comments started by Reddit user rothotindisguise seeks to figure out what real-world actor the render resembles. Some options include Kelsey Grammer of Fraiser fame, Bill Paxton from Independence Day, and Neil McDonough — who looked similar in his appearance as Major Bennington from Paramount Picture's Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

With Doom Eternal having been out for more than a month, fans of the series have had ample time to really rip and tear through all the denizens of hell using the most recent iteration of Doomguy. The game has inspired other creative endeavors, like one fan recreating Doom Eternal's DoomBlade.

The AI render put together by Panishev is unique in that it pulls from so far into the series' past, much like how Doom Eternal itself includes multiple hidden sequences similar to the original Doom. While somewhat archaic by today's standards, Doom '93 still holds up rather well as one of the games that truly pioneered the first-person shooter genre as the world knows it now.

While id Software's modern iteration of Doom takes the lead character in a very different direction than Panishev's render, Doomguy is no doubt in a great place being able to aggressively mow through demons against a heavy metal soundtrack. However, composer Mick Gordon is unlikely to return for future sequels based on a conversation he had with a fan last week.

Doom Eternal is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

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Source: Neil McDonough on IMDb