Signing up to act in a “Star Wars” film comes with a lot of baggage. Not only do you have to worry about the fandom tearing apart and analyzing every second of screen time, but there’s also more that goes on behind-the-scenes. As “Solo: A Star Wars Story” actor Donald Glover discusses in a new interview with The New Yorker, there was one bit of behind-the-scenes activity that raised an eyebrow.
“I’m scanned into Star Wars now, my face and body,” Donald told The New Yorker. “Who’s to say that at some point they won’t take that scan and say, ‘Let’s make another movie with Donald. He’s been dead for fifteen years, but we can do whatever we want with him.'”
Scanning an actor’s face and body is pretty common among these major tentpole films, especially among the major characters like Glover’s Lando Calrissian. While the scan is mainly used for digital effects artists to insert when needed throughout a film, there are other reasons as well, that aren’t as nefarious as Glover worries about. Let’s be real, “Star Wars” is much less a film franchise than a toy franchise, and scanning Glover’s likeness helps with toy making.
READ MORE: Rian Johnson Praises ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ Says It’s “Beautiful” & “Funny”
However, that isn’t to say that Glover’s concerns are unfounded. Just recently, in the blockbuster “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” filmmakers inserted digital likenesses of both Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher into the film. Fisher was only seen at the very end, but Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin was a central character to the plot. As fans, critics, and anyone with eyes would tell you, the experiment was, at once, impressive and horrible.
While the technology is pretty great, it just doesn’t look right… yet. And that “yet” is what Glover is commenting on. There’s a completely plausible future where Glover’s likeness could be used, with or without his permission, in future “Star Wars” films. In fact, it’s almost an inevitability.
For now, audiences can expect a living, breathing Donald Glover to appear in the upcoming “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” when it hits theaters May 25.
