Harrison Ford details de-aging tech in new Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones may have once said he’s making this up as he goes, but it’s clear that the filmmakers behind Dial of Destiny have a clear plan on what to do with Harrison Ford’s iconic character–especially when it comes to de-aging him.

Appearing on an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week, Harrison Ford revealed that the younger version of Indiana Jones is actually Ford himself–with the assistance of some de-aging technology, of course. “That is my actual face at that age. They have this artificial intelligence program that can go through every foot of film that Lucasfilm owns because I did a bunch of movies for them. They have all this footage, including film that wasn’t printed. So they can mine it from where the light is coming from, from the expression…Then I put little dots on my face and I say the words and they make it [happen]. It’s fantastic.” It’s so fantastic that you could say it belongs in a museum…

Dial of Destiny is set in 1969, more than a decade after the events of Harrison Ford’s previous Indy outing, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. For the aforementioned sequence, which is set in 1944, the team at Industrial Light & Magic had to de-age Ford a quarter century. That would put the now 80-year-old Ford back into his oh-so-youthful mid-50s. Ford joked, “That’s what I see when I look in the mirror now.” Not too shabby for an octogenarian!

Although de-aging technology can be dicey in even the most skilled hands, the glimpses seen in the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny footage released so far look promising. Director James Mangold, too, is hoping to justly serve the character. “I think that what we’re trying to do is balance both an accurate and realistic appraisal of where this character would be at this time in his life, and do that honestly, and at the same time, try and carry forward what the very title of our movie promises.”

Harrison Ford being transformed into a younger Indiana Jones looks impressive, but digitally de-aging actors is far from new, with the technology going back nearly two decades. And the trend will only grow, with other Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks and Robin Wright undergoing digital surgery for Robert Zemeckis’ next film.

How do you feel digitally de-aging Harrison Ford will work overall in the new Indiana Jones? Do you think Harrison Ford looks good in the available clip? Let us know below!