Thanks to Deepfake and CGI technology, highly skilled fans have been casting various characters and actors as iconic Star Wars characters. For instance, recently, a new Deepfake video imagined Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown as a young Princess Leia and now someone else has used similar technology with TV's Homer Simpson.
YouTuber "Speaking of AI" went in a different direction by using artificial intelligence technology to have Homer Simpson take the place of Palpatine (played by Ian McDiarmid) in an iconic scene from Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. In this two-minute recreation, Homer Simpson introduces Anakin Skywalker to the ways of the Sith and explains the legend of Darth Plagueis.
The voice of Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson was synthesized using an AI model trained on his speech patterns. This video, entitled “[AI Voice] Homer tells the legend of Darth Plagueis the Wise,” has accumulated over 460,000 views on YouTube. "Speaking of AI" has also imagined Homer Simpson on HBO’s Chernobyl and Vice President Kamala Harris as Marge Simpson.
Ironically, over the past 10 years, Disney has purchased both the Star Wars franchise and The Simpsons through their acquisitions of Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. All 32 seasons of the hit animated show are available on Disney Plus. Meanwhile, a whopping 10 Star Wars spin-off projects are expected to be released on the streaming service between 2021-2023.
One of these projects will feature a rematch between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. During Disney's D23 event in 2019, President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, revealed that Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor will reprise their prequel roles in an upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Lucasfilm asserts that this series will take place 10 years after Revenge of the Sith and before the events of A New Hope. This six-episode limited series will explore the Jedi's time in exile on the desert planet Tatooine.
McGregor recently expressed his enthusiasm over the new project on Eddie Izzard’s Reddit charity marathon stream. "It’ll just be great to [play Obi-Wan] again," he said. "I did my last one in 2003, and it’s such a long time ago. The idea of doing it again is more exciting even than it was then, I think. I’m thrilled to get a chance to play him again."
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is expected to start filming in spring 2021.
Source: Speaking of AI|YouTube