With the passing of Carrie Fisher, the topic of using digital recreations of deceased actors to portray their memorable characters in new films has popped up again. Star Wars fans should not worry about the upcoming ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ as Fisher finished her scenes for the anticipated series film before she died of a heart attack last month. Leia was reported to have a role in the follow-up Episode IX but it’s unclear how Fisher’s death will affect that film which is a few years away.

Since the 90’s CGI tech in movies has evolved tremendously to such a high  point,  it was not a surprise to see a younger Carrie Fisher shown as her classic 1977 version of Princess Leia in the recent blockbuster smash ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’. Moff Tarkin, the coldhearted Empire leader was used in several critical scenes in ’Rogue One’ with extended dialogue even though actor Peter Cushing who portrayed the character in the original trilogy, died 20 years ago. This is not just a 2016 thing in film-making, it could be the future of movies.

Mr. Sunday Movies does a great job of digging into this topic and specifically how it has effected many beloved movie stars appearing in commercials.

Could this happen with every actor in any movie? They just get scanned up  and they will be a part of a series of films or TV shows for a long time after they have passed on from this lame reality while living on in an imagined reality we see on screen. Movieweb covers it in depth here.