Star Wars fans now have the chance to see Harrison Ford return to his role as Han Solo in an impressive new fan video. The Deepfake video adds Ford into some scenes from the 2018 prequel movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The video was created by YouTube user Shamook, who was able to digitally place Ford's face over that of Alden Ehrenreich, who played young Han Solo in Solo. The result gives fans a glimpse at what the original Han Solo would have looked like in this origin story as he interacted with Chewbacca, Beckett, and Lando Calrissian. The video even replaces Donald Glover as Lando with Billy Dee Williams to give an extra shot of nostalgia.
Solo: A Star Wars story was meant to continue the trend of big-screen spin-offs of the Star Wars universe. However, the movie ended up being a huge disappointment, critically and financially. It seems that the main issue fans had with the film was that they were uninterested in seeing anyone except Harrison Ford portray the iconic role of Han Solo. This video does allow fans to have a little wish-fulfillment in that sense.
The video is another example of how impressive the Deepfake technology has become. Some have even suggested something like this could be used to allow Harrison Ford to return to his other famous role of Indiana Jones in the upcoming sequel without having to address his older age. However, there has yet to be a practical use of this technology in movies and it seems unlikely the look would remain convincing throughout a feature-length movie as opposed to a few short scenes.
The video remains a stunning bit of digital magic and it's hard not to be impressed with how a legendary character was recreated years later. However, it is distracting to see Ford's face matched with Ehrenreich's voice, and it also shows how Deepfake videos are unable to capture the mannerisms of an actor's performance accurately. Still, it is a very cool video for any Star Wars fan to check out and it actually shows that Ehrenreich looked more like Ford than fans might have realized.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: YouTube | Shamook