Head replacements have come a long way. The best examples are the ones that completely fool us like seeing the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner look over and smile at Vin Diesel’s Dom at the end of 2015’s Furious 7. WetaFX took such care and attention to detail in the shots where Dom sees Brian pull up next to him for their last ride. In total WetaFX crafted 260 shots utilizing Paul’s brothers, Caleb and Cody, for lighting and on location performance, but in most cases relied heavily on using legacy footage of Paul with his brothers as body doubles. This was the time between 2010’s Tron: Legacy of Clu’s CGI floating head and the CGI missteps of Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia in 2016’s Rogue One. While ILM did make great strides in de-aging Indy in Dial of Destiny, I feel in good form they should go back and take the same level of care with Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. Both actors deserve the same level of respect that WetaFX gave Paul Walker for Furious 7.
“Paul Walker’s charisma is front and center at the very heart of the last scene in Furious 7 when he rides up next to his long time brother, Vin Diesel. WetaFX paid meticulous attention to detail in this tribute ending.”
“5-year-old Will Byers brought to life in Stranger Things Season 5’s opening scene. Overall, WetaFX did an incredible job in this moody, moonlit environment. The primary tell is that Will’s head is too large.”
While I doubt The Mandalorian Season 2 finale’s Luke Skywalker was a deepfake and really just a 2D puppet-tooled stand-in, we’ve now seen the best, worst, and mediocre of the head replacement trend. Rounding out the best would have to be ILM’s Dial of Destiny de-aged Indy for the 2023 film. The exciting, 20-minute callback sequence left us breathless. Other than a handful of shots where Harrison’s head and fedora were too big for their body (see examples below), it was mostly on the side of believability. Stranger Things Season 5’s opening scene places Will back in the Upside Down hiding from the Demogorgon in Castle Byers. WetaFX did an incredible job in the series of shots for this moody, moonlit opener. Other than Will’s head being about 5–10% too large — to cover up the stand in for the young Will — it’s even better than ILM’s Dial of Destiny Indy who, as I said before, was also slightly plagued with the same inflated head syndrome. Indy’s skin was also a bit too clean and rubbery. There were a few shots that I noticed different shapes morphing into others to make transitions between creases in his dimples. Overall, these scenes were awesome! Solid A.
The size of Ford’s fedora and head is what broke the illusion in some scenes for me where Indy’s head was close to 15% too large. They were quite obvious. No matter how fancy the lighting and matte work is, it’s clear in these two shots above that the larger head in apparent and front and center. This scene was the second time his head replacement broke. The shot earlier when he punches a Nazi driver and jumps into the driver’s seat he puts on a helmet. His face is too large for the helmet in many shots. Even with that series of criticisms, I do applaud ILM for sticking to their guns delivering such fun, adventurous scenes with our favorite Indy during his prime. They had a much more difficult task dealing with multiple light sources and environments compared to the moonlit scene of Will Byers in the Upside Down in ST:S5 that was more of an overall wash of moonlight.