Disney in Hot Water for Digitally Adding Actor to ‘Star Wars’ Without Approval

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Princess Leia stands off against Grand Moff Tarkin in 'Star Wars: A New Hope'

Credit: Lucasfilm

The return of one actor from the classic Star Wars trilogy sparked controversy in 2016—and it’s sparking even more controversy today.

Back in 2016, Disney committed what we still consider to be one of the boldest acts of its Star Wars ownership to date. For the first time in Star Wars history, it released a standalone film—not a trilogy installment—that linked with the Skywalker Saga while also standing as a powerful outing in its own right.

Promotional image for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Legend’s Tragic Death Blamed on Sequels, “She Practically Killed Herself”

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) was released to huge critical fanfare and equally huge financial results. Taking home $1.059 billion at the box office, the film was praised by critics and fans alike (a rarity) but did trigger backlash for some of its cameos.

The film follows a group of rebels who band together to steal the plans for the Death Star, inevitably overlapping significantly with the first-ever Star Wars entry, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). The latter begins with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) obtaining the Death Star plans—which is exactly how Rogue One ends.

De-aged Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'
Credit: Lucasfilm

Of course, with nearly 40 years between the two films, portraying a 19-year-old Leia wasn’t exactly possible for Fisher at the time. The film instead used Norwegian actress Ingvild Deila as a stand-in, with Fisher’s young likeness later superimposed via CGI.

This received its fair share of backlash. Critics called out the CGI for looking unrealistic, with USA Today claiming that “the Leia cameo is so jarring as to take the audience completely out of the film at its most emotional moment. Leia’s appearance was meant to help the film end on a hopeful note (quite literally, as ‘hope’ is her line), but instead it ends on a weird and unsettling one.”

Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin
Credit: Lucasfilm

However, they held even more vitriol for the film’s other CGI recreation. While Leia only had a brief cameo, Grand Moff Tarkin  – the Galactic Empire commander of the Death Star introduced alongside Darth Vader in A New Hope – played a more significant role, with more lines than Leia’s monosyllabic “hope.”

While Guy Henry physically portrayed Tarkin, actor Peter Cushing’s likeness was also superimposed via CGI. What made this more uncomfortable than Leia’s appearance was that, at the time, Fisher was still alive and able to sign off on the idea. Cushing, however, passed away in 1994.

The Guardian dubbed the deepfake an “indignity,” while The Washington Times slammed the idea of using technology to recreate deceased actors.

At the time, it was reported that The Walt Disney Company had sought permission from Cushing’s estate before deciding to digitally superimpose the deceased actor’s likeness.

However, the studio is now being sued by a friend who claims that the legendary actor, who also played Doctor Van Helsing in five Dracula films, never granted anyone permission to replicate his likeness using special effects without his prior approval.

Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One
Credit: Lucasfilm

Kevin Francis – who worked with Cushing on films such as The Ghoul, Legend of the Werewolf, and The Masks of Death – claims that the pair made an agreement while they were preparing for a film called A Heritage of Horror in 1993, a year before his death.

His production company, Tyburn Film Productions, sued The Walt Disney Company as well as Rogue One producers Lunak Heavy Industries, Cushing’s agency, and the executors of his estate.

Lucasfilm’s counterargument is that it didn’t need permission to recreate Cushing’s image as A New Hope was remastered in 1997 and it paid $37,000 to his estate to gain the rights to use his likeness.

However, as per The Times, Disney has failed to have Francis’s claims for “unjust enrichment” dismissed from the High Court. Judge Tom Mitcheson said that the case should go to trial, adding, “I am also not persuaded that the case is unarguable to the standard required to give summary judgment or to strike it out … In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie in the absence of a full factual enquiry.”

Princess Leia confronts Grand Moff Tarkin in 'Star Wars: A New Hope'
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: Harrison Ford on Returning to ‘Star Wars’: “I’d Kill Myself”

Disney has since used special effects to reinsert other actors into Star Wars projects. This includes Carrie Fisher, again, in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) after the actress sadly passed away prior to filming.

Scenes for Leia in the present utilized unused footage from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), while a flashback to a scene of young Leia starred a mixture of new footage from her daughter, Billie Lourd, and digitally superimposed old footage.

The studio also used special effects to de-age Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker for that same scene and cameos in the Disney+ shows The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba FettHayden Christensen was also de-aged in Obi-Wan Kenobi to reprise his role of Anakin Skywalker before his downfall to the Dark Side.

Do you think studios should use special effects to incorporate deceased actors into films?

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