Watch ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Clips with Harrison Ford Thanks to Deepfake Artificial Intelligence

Harrison Ford in Solo

For some Star Wars fans, one of the biggest hurdles for Solo: A Star Wars Story was allowing themselves to accept Alden Ehrenreich playing a young Han Solo when they were already so used to Harrison Ford playing the character. Well, thanks to the the technological magic of Deepfake, an artificial intelligence-based human image synthesis technique, fans can see what Solo: A Star Wars Story might have looked like with Harrison Ford in the lead.

Watch Harrison Ford in Solo: A Star Wars Story below.

Watch Harrison Ford in Solo

Obviously this isn’t perfect since it’s done by artificial intelligence rather than a crew of visual effects artists painstakingly detailing every frame of the film, but there are some shots that are positively eerie in their realistic portrayal of Harrison Ford playing young Han Solo again.

It’s a little jarring to hear Alden Ehrenreich’s voice coming out of Harrison Ford’s mouth, but it’s also interesting to see how the actor brought the same kind of charming smirks to his performance, this time with Harrison Ford’s face on top of them. Personally, I think Ehrenreich deserves a lot of credit for not just doing an impression of Harrison Ford’s take on Han Solo, but rather trying to embody the character himself and make it his own in a way that’s still true to the spirit of the smuggler.

This kind of technology is only getting more impressive, and that’s potentially dangerous. Aside from the real world ramifications of technology like this being available, this might give studios executives the idea to bring back actors from beyond the grave while having another actor replicate their voice, and that sounds like an unnerving and unethical path for entertainment to take.

But the technology can also be used for good, like when one user took a $500 computer and Deepfake technology to properly remove Henry Cavill’s mustache from a key scene in Justice League: