How ILM brought back Grand Moff Tarkin Princess Leia for Rogue One

How Industrial Light and Magic brought back Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia for Rogue One

So how exactly did ILM bring back Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia for Rogue One? There has been much discussion on the Internet about ethics, quality, and even the process to bring them back. ABC’s Nightline was given behind the scenes insight on how they did it. They got a scoop from Industrial Light and Magic in San Francisco, spoke with John Knoll, and revealed never before seen footage of the process of creating not just Tarkin, but Leia too. Watch it above its very intriguing!

And, now that Carrie Fisher has passed away its even more interesting but again one has to question if this is the right thing to do with dead actors. Was Peter Cushing’s estate asked for permission? They must have been but still it is kind of weird and cool.

We don’t get how people have issues with the CGI Leia. She looked absolutely perfect, almost flawless in terms of a CGI construct. We even tried our hardest to find flaws during repeat viewings of Rogue One. Tarkin was clearly more difficult to execute since he has so much more screen time, but many people watching Star Wars for the first time didn’t even know he was CGI until they read about it in the media. Sure, this CGI work may not be 100%, but damn if it isn’t around 99% there.

But at the same time you know its not real which makes it kind of creepy because its based on real humans. If we sound conflicted its because we are. Imagine how many dead actors could be brought back. The possibilities are endless if not a little macabre :-).

Seeing as you are here why not have a look at ILM’s website? Or fancy some cool Star Wars Merchandise?