Book of Boba Fett: Does Luke Skywalker look better than ever?
- Published
- comments
The Book of Boba Fett series has become a who's who of heroes from the Star Wars universe, including one famous Jedi.
This is your SPOILER WARNING if you haven't caught up...
The series started with everyone's favourite bounty hunter turned crime lord, Boba Fett and his adventures on the sand planet Tatooine.
It has since gone on to follow the stories of Grogu (baby Yoda) Din Djarin the Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano and most recently Luke Skywalker.
Thanks to computer effects and deepfake technology, the iconic Jedi has now appeared in both the Boba Fett and Mandalorian series looking almost exactly the same as his appearance in Return of the Jedi, a film released back in 1983.
His most recent cameo looks even more convincing. So how do you bring back a character looking as he did 39 years ago?
What do you think of Luke Skywalker's appearance in The Book of Boba Fett? Does he look better than he did in The Mandalorian? Let us know in the comments.
When Lucasfilm - the makers of Star Wars - originally decided to bring Luke Skywalker back in The Mandalorian, they began working with deepfake technology.
Deepfake tech involves feeding in as many images and video clips of a person into a computer as possible.
The computer AI (Artificial Intelligence) is then able to learn lots about a person's face, how it moves when they talk or make a facial expression such as smiling and can then digitally copy them.
The team at Lucasfilm then decided they wanted to have the original Luke Skywalker actor, 70-year-old Mark Hamill return to perform in the scene and used de-aging techniques seen in previous Marvel and Star Wars films.
In doing so, they combined the on-set acting performances of Hamill and another actor named Max Lloyd-Jones, who physically resembled a young Luke Skywalker.
The final result impressed some fans, but was criticised by others who felt it was unconvincing and distracting.
"We still have a few years before it really gets indistinguishable, but I'm telling you it will get to a point where you can't tell them apart," said executive producer Jon Favreau.
Following the mixed response, some YouTubers attempted to make their own version of a computer generated Luke Skywalker, including one with the username, Shamook.
Shamook's version of Luke was so good, that many fans thought it was better than the original!
Those skills were also noticed by people at Lucasfilm who gave Shamook a job in their visual effects team working on the latest version of Luke for The Book of Boba Fett.
Luke Skywalker in the Book of Baba Fett
Similar technology was used to bring Luke back for The Book of Boba Fett but many fans have commented saying the character looked noticeably better than he did in his Mandalorian appearance just over a year ago.
This time a different actor, Graham Hamilton - whose body shape resembles that of a young Luke Skywalker - was used for the physical performance of the character, with Mark Hamill's face digitally mapped onto his head.
The actor posted on his Instagram explaining what it was like to take on the role of the galaxy's most iconic Jedi.
"What can I say. Co-creating Luke Skywalker for The Book of Boba Fett with master Mark Hamill was one of the most magical and fulfilling creative experiences of my life," Hamilton said.
Luke's voice
Luke Skywalker's voice in Boba Fett and the Mandalorian is completely synthetic, meaning it's created by a computer and isn't real.
As people get older their voices change meaning Mark Hamill sounds different now compared to when he was in his 30s.
So the team at Lucasfilm used a computer application called re-speacher which analysed old audio of Luke Skywalker and Hamill from when he was a young man.
In doing so it was able to recreate the voice of the young Luke Skywalker as accurately as possible.
Speaking about the technology last year, executive producer Jon Favreau. said: "It makes you realise it becomes harder and harder to trust your own eyes and ears when it comes to this stuff."
The final episode of series one of The Book of Boba Fett drops on Disney+ on 9 February.
- Published12 December 2019
- Published20 August 2021
- Published29 July 2021