Lucasfilm recently hired a YouTuber who improved upon that big cameo in the finale of The Mandalorian's Season Two. In a shocking reveal that was not without its critiques, Grogu decided to go with Luke Skywalker to learn the ways of the force in the season finale, which featured a young, CGI'd Mark Hamill looking...not his best. A YouTuber named Shamook using the best in current deepfake technology published his own video with a side-by-side of the original footage, and it's not hard to see whose is better.
Shamook is a YouTuber who uses creates deepfakes of popular franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a comment on The Mandalorian video (which now has over 2 million views), Shamook revealed that Lucasfilm recruited them not long after the video was published back in December:
“As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilm 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!”
And in a statement to Indiewire, Industrial Light and Magic, the VFX team behind the Disney+ series, said,
“[ILM is] always on the lookout for talented artists and have in fact hired the artist that goes by the online persona ‘Shamook.' Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances.”
Lucasfilm and Disney+ are currently doubling down on their live-action Star Wars output in the next couple of years, with The Book of Boba Fett set to debut in December. It will star Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, both of who made appearances in the last season of The Mandalorian. Additionally, fans rejoiced when they heard that McGregor was returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a self-titled series, which will also feature the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. Finally, a third season of The Mandalorian has officially been commissioned, and they are still reeling from the high of their four Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series.
Check out Shamook's Deekfake video below, and be sure to catch up on season one and two of The Mandalorian on Disney+.