Dreams can come true, and Lucasfilm is here to prove it. The famous Youtuber, Shamook, who went viral for deepfake video in which he further improved the anti-aging CGI of Luke Skywalker in the season two finale of the Disney+ original series The Mandalorian, has been hired by Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
Lucasfilm recruited the skilled Youtuber after Shamook took the famous scene of the de-aged Skywalker, portrayed by Mark Hamill (Masters of the Universe: Revelation), during brief cameo in The Mandalorian season two finale, and did an even more remarkable job at restoring Hamill to his young physical self during the original Star Wars trilogy. The video on Youtube amassed over two million views, and Lucasfilm took note.
See Shamook’s deepfake video of Skywalker during The Mandalorian season two finale below:
The finale aired this past December, and Shamook just revealed the news of his hiring on his Youtube page within the comments of his deepfake video containing Robert Pattinson (Twilight) replacing Christian Bale (The Fighter) in The Dark Knight film. Shamook wrote: “As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilms a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content. Now I’ve settled into my job, uploads should start increasing again. They’ll still be slow, but hopefully not months apart. Enjoy!”
Lucasfilm then responded to Shamook’s announcement of his new job in a statement picked up by Entertainment Weekly: “[Industrial Light and Magic is] always on the lookout for talented artists and have in fact hired the artist that goes by the online persona ‘Shamook…Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances.”
This was not Shamook’s first Star Wars rodeo, as he first burst onto the seen with impressive deepfake videos in which he did his own anti-aging of Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher (Postcards from the Edge), and Grand Moff Tarkin, portrayed by Peter Cushing, in Star Wars: Rogue One. Now in the major leagues, time will tell what Shamook will do next.