For his fifth and final appearance as Indiana Jones, a de-aged Harrison Ford is slated to grace the film for a solid 25 minutes this summer. Perhaps a nod to the old days and his iconic younger years as the titular adventure seeker, LucasFilm has confirmed that the VFX version of Ford will be on screen for one-fifth of the overall playing time. In a report last year, the de-aged characters was confirmed as a crucial part of the storyline.
Now, in the fifth installment of the franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told Empire that the reason for de-aging Indiana Jones in the first 25-minutes is due to the opening scene set in 1944. He said, “My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, ‘Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago.’” The rest of the film is slated to move forward into 1960, where Indy begins his mission to prevent a comeback of Nazism.
News of a de-aged Ford comes just months after Disney announced it was building an AI that could make actors appear older or younger. The team of researchers behind the AI, better known as FRAN (face re-aging network) explained it only works with real people if they had images of the person in certain poses and lighting at a younger age. In order to de-age Ford, the studio used his previous archives in the role to accomplish the process.
In other entertainment news, Aaron Taylor-Johnson reveals Kraven the Hunter will be Sony’s first R-rated Marvel film.
