'Star Wars' Reveals How Luke's Voice Was Achieved For 'The Book Of Boba Fett'
One of the biggest surprises with the newest entries in the "Mando-verse" has been the use of legacy characters, specifically Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker. The original protagonist of the Star Wars universe, Luke has undergone many changes from the Legends stories of his time post-Return of the Jedi, to the current cannon with his appearances in Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett. Despite what you think about his canonical onscreen actions during the sequel trilogy and the Disney+ series, the CGI work done on Luke's face and the "voice acting" behind the character's return is a technological marvel.
While Mark Hamill was credited in both The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett, and he did do consulting work for The Rescue, Max Lloyd-Jones stood in the legendary actor's place for the shooting of Mandalorian, wearing the iconic, dark Jedi robes, cutting through Dark Troopers, and interacting with Grogu and Din Djarin. Graham Hamilton took up the mantle for Book of Boba Fett, portraying the physical aspects of Luke's character. The Ukrainian company, Respeecher, was also heavily involved in making the Jedi Master come to life, by analyzing and recreating Mark Hamill's voice.
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In a recent interview with Variety, Respeecher CEO, Alex Serdiuk, went into greater detail about how Luke's dialogue was created. Pulling audio recordings of Mark Hamill from the Lucasfilm archives, Respeecher was able to analyze the speaking patterns and articulations of Hamill when in-character as Luke. Recordings from audio books, video games, and all kinds of other Star Wars projects where fed into the Respeecher app. Serdiuk describes the process like so;
“Our technology applies a digital voice skin, digital vocal apparatus of that particular performance, and that gives content creators and moviemakers that full content over how it should sound and even inflections.”
According to Lucasfilm, Hamill was not required to record any new lines for these most recent renditions of a young Luke. The development of this kind of technology raises many interesting questions about the future of acting in film. We've already seen deceased actors "resurrected" for Star Wars projects, with both Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher, "CGIed" into the set. These portrayals in Rogue One and Rise of Skywalker were met with mixed reviews, both from a practical execution standpoint, and from an ethical perspective.
While Mark Hamill is certainly not hurting for work, and the recent resurgence of Star Wars has served to revitalize his celebrity, the idea of AI analyzing voice patterns and producing audio lines seems like a very soulless and sterile way of producing art. It is certainly impressive technology and not without its uses in modern filmmaking, but at some point, the reigns have to be handed over to a new actor, especially if Luke Skywalker is going to continue to be a reoccurring character in the Mando-verse. Fans across the internet have already expressed their interest in seeing Sebastian Stan play the part, as have Stan and Hamill, and recasting would certainly be preferential to "Luke-bot" continuing in the role.
Relegating the character of Luke Skywalker to a nostalgia trip (as the rapid turnaround from appearance, taking Grogu as an apprentice, then coldly sending him back to Mando alone in a X-Wing seems to imply) seems like a misstep on Lucasfilm's part. While the Respeecher technology is a fascinating and somewhat Orwellian step into the future, flesh and blood actors are still capable of bringing more soul to the screen and should maintain their role in the forefront of onscreen art, even for characters whose original actors may be too old for the part.
Expanding Luke's role in these post-Return of the Jedi stories would not only appease many fans, but would also make sense in-universe as Skywalker's School for Force-sensitive Youngsters continues to grow and the threat of Thrawn looms on the horizon. The best steps forward in this department are to leave Respeecher's contributions to Star Wars as they currently stand, with additional dialogue and scenes here or there, but to overall recast the roles of iconic characters that are important to this era of storytelling and let new actors perform in the galaxy far, far away.
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Source(s): Variety, Screen Rant
