Bruce Willis put out a huge number of straight-to-video movies in the last few years of his career, and the reason for that became apparent when it was announced that the iconic action star was being forced into retirement after being diagnosed with aphasia. Now Willis has become the first Hollywood actor to sell their likeness for use in deepfake videos.

Bruce Willis’ announcement earlier this year shocked and saddened the world, with the Die Hard star being praised by thousands of colleagues, friends, family, and fans for his four-decade career. Willis’ diagnosis signaled that the actor would be struggling with reading, speaking and listening, something that is essential when learning lines and following the instructions of a director in the movie industry. The retirement of Willis suggested that other than the final few low-budget films, the actor’s on screen appearances were at an end.

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Now it seems that may not be case, as The Telegraph has reported that Willis has signed over the rights to his image to U.S. firm Deepcake, who will be able to make digitally generated deep fake versions of the star to be used in movies and on TV. As it is, Willis has already appeared in a commercial in 2021 using the technology, and at the time he seemed to be thrilled at the ability for him to be given the “opportunity to go back in time” and that has clearly been a big part of him signing over his likeness to allow future appearances. It is not clear whether any uses of his image have to still be authorized in some way, or whether Deepcake are able to use it as they wish.

Deep Fake Technology Has Massively Improved Over The Last Decade

     Lucasfilm Ltd.

While deepfake technology was always a little bit dubious, recently there have been many more uses of it making its way into big movie and TV productions, most notably from the Star Wars franchise. The first case of deepfake style graphics being used were in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which created a digital version of the late Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin. Since then, similar technology has been used to create digital younger versions of Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywallker in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, as well as a digital version of the late Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker.

Over the years many late actors have been resurrected through the use of this kind of technology including Paul Walker in Fast and Furious 7, Oliver Reed in Gladiator and Marlon Brando in Superman Returns, but in addition to this the advancement in the software has seen many actors being de-aged such as Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in The Irishman, and Will Smith in Gemini Man, and it is believed that Harrison Ford will be made to look younger in at least part of the upcoming Indiana Jones 5.

Where Bruce Willis’ deal takes his likeness in the future is currently unclear, but what is becoming apparent is that actors’ careers are increasingly not limited by age or even death. With Disney being heavily involved in the use of deepfake style technology, and now owning the rights to the Die Hard movies, it could be possible that Bruce Willis could yet appear in another project as John McClane at some point in time. Having been one of the driving forces of 80s action movies, Willis could now be a pioneer of this kind of retirement plan for many other actors.