Despite a rising trend in studios reviving dead actors with computer-generated imagery, Marvel has no plans of doing so in their own movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become the gold standard at the box office over the past ten years, breaking numerous records and generating widespread fanfare. Many have tried to copy Marvel’s financially lucrative formula, but few have had much success replicating the necessary ingredients.

Disney was at the forefront of resurrecting dead actors on the big screen, evident by bringing Peter Cushing back as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. By the time Rogue One released, Cushing had been dead for over 22 years, not to mention that the film didn’t even go into production until 20 years after his death. After the tragic death of Carrie Fisher, Leia in the Star Wars films, Disney decided to not fully recreate her likeness with CGI as they had with Cushing, but digital effects still played a role in her posthumous appearance in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. (A younger version of Fisher from Star Wars: A New Hope was also digitally recreated for Rogue One, though this was prior to her death.) Many questioned the ethics behind Disney’s decision to recreate dead actors, which seems to be a debate that will continue to grow as technology advances further.

The MCU will not use CGI to bring back dead actors, reports Yahoo Movies (via CBR). Marvel Studios’ Executive Vice President of Production, Victoria Alonso affirmed the studio’s stance on staying away from reviving dead actors with CGI, saying, “We haven’t considered that.” In talking about the moral quandary that is recreating dead actors on screen, Craig Hammack, a VFX artist who worked on Captain Marvel added,

Alonso goes on to express that although Marvel uses a considerable amount of CGI, they’re still heavily reliant on the motion captures of their actors in delivering a good story. She offers an example of this fact in saying, “The experience of doing Thanos and Hulk brought it into very clear view that you need the live performance of Josh Brolin and Mark Ruffalo.”

“It is something that we’re all aware of, because the possibilities are coming and our hope is that it doesn’t happen in an irresponsible way. Personally, I don’t want to see something that’s not the performance of the person represented as the person.”

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion on reviving dead actors with CGI, but the one person’s opinion who matters most (the dead actor in question), can’t be heard from beyond the grave. For many, the matter comes down to respecting the wishes of the deceased. If an actor were to express that they would have no issue being revived with CGI once they die, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. But most actors, such as Peter Cushing, never could’ve foreseen what a performance in 1977 would become in today’s world of modern technology. It will be curious to see if studios sign a “resurrection clause” with stars in the future. At least for the time being, Marvel has no plans of doing so with actors in the MCU.

More: Warner Bros.’ New AI Would Never Make The MCU

Source: Yahoo Movies (via CBR)

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