The Mandalorian's Season 2 finale saw Luke Skywalker return to the Star Wars universe as a much younger self than when fans last saw the aged and jaded character in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. VFX artists used a mix of deepfake technology and CGI to recreate young Skywalker for the Baby Yoda-centered series; however, not all were pleased with its result.
Since the show's finale, and the franchise's announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series, fan-artists have recreated Luke's younger face and fan-cast the original trilogy. Concept artist stryderHD recently fan-cast Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown as Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher).
The concept artist created the video, in part, to show how deepfake/CGI technology can help recast roles for franchises that seek to revisit characters, but unfortunately, cannot use SFX and VFX to age down the original actor since they're deceased, like Fisher. Also, the video was a result of an online poll, casting Princess Leia in Disney+'s upcoming Kenobi series.
"At some point in time we are going to either recast or totally CGI parts of actors if you ever want to see them younger or a prequel of a movie they were in or unfortunately great actors we have lost, maybe to ever see them again," stryderHD wrote.
"Star Wars Deepfake" shows Brown's face on Fisher's body, picking iconic scenes throughout the original Star Wars trilogy, including Leia's face-off with Vader aboard the Alderaanian starship Tantive IV and the first of many bickerings between Han Solo and Princess Organa.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+ was announced as part of Disney's Investor Day 2020. During the Star Wars portion of the event, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy officially announced that Christensen would be returning as Darth Vader for the Obi-Wan series, teasing a "rematch" between the Dark Lord of the Sith and his former Jedi Master.
Set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope, the Obi-Wan Kenobi show will be a limited event series. It's expected to follow the former Jedi during his time watching over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. At the time of this writing, it's unclear if Leia would appear in the series. During this time period, Leia does know of Obi-Wan through her 'father' Senator Bail Organa but never met Kenobi until A New Hope.
Directed by Deborah Chow and starring Ewan McGregor, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is currently in development for Disney+.