In terms of replacing an actor with a younger version of themselves, or actor X standing in for actor Y, it’s already happening, just with more labor-intensive processes. The sets are already digital. (See: Mandalorian, with both virtual characters and sets*) Creating performances wholecloth out of nothing requires convincing text-to-speech generation but also someone (likely a team of someones) to construct the actual performance. AI-generated performances are likely to be weird forever (or at least until a machine passes the Turing test).
Yeah, the Hollywood filtering process involves fads where certain looks come into (and out of) vogue, and it’s doubly true with specific filmmakers who are extremely specific about the faces they want. (And it’s not just directors, but also casting people, producers, etc. whose influence might be less obvious, and even agents, who take on clients based on what they perceive to be the current trends and preferences of the decision makers.) On top of which you get the “we’re looking for a (current hot actor)-type for this role” phenomenon, which propels careers precisely because people look alike.
Not a great movie, and not exactly prescient, either (given that it was partially a response to digital technologies already changing Hollywood at the time), but it was playing with the idea of a fully synthetic actor.
To be fair Ilia was a Deltan and according to cannon they do not have hair.
Not saying you can’t have a bald female human, but in this case it was more like the Kilgon head ridge than just a random thing happens to some Deltans.
Two solid actors doing a scene that I bet was just hilarious pre- and post-take. John de Lancie knows how to be such a ham. Rolling. Speed. Chew that scenery! And… action!
Would love to see the outtakes. Surely there must be some. They are both witty and good with snappy comebacks.
The next step will be credible recreation of voice, style and gestures, so for example we could have Elvis, Jimi, Kurt and Freddie performing all together in concert on a track which would make a fan think “it’s them!”. Apply the same to actors, and the future will be 100% digital with no real actors. Not the same as the real thing probably, but to me a B5 sequel/reboot with a half real G’Kar would be 100 times better than no B5 or no G’Kar.
I’m all for a female Picard. Non-canon, reboot, graphic novel, alternate timeline, she gets another android body but this time it’s female—however you want to do that, I’m game.
