Disney scrapped including Dwayne Johnson AI deepfake in ‘Moana’
Disney decided to scrap an original plan to include a deepfake version, using artificial intelligence, of Dwayne Johnson’s character, Maui, in their current live-action remake of Moana.
According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, although Johnson is set to reprise his role from the 2016 animation, the company had initially planned to digitally scan the actor’s body and use a stunt double to capture certain shots.
However, despite Johnson approving of it, they ultimately decided against this choice, as they were concerned about the bad publicity this could generate for the company and the film, according to the report.
Disney had planned to work with the AI company Metaphysic to generate a ‘digital double’ of Johnson’s face so that he didn’t need to be physically present for every scene of the filming process, but worries were later raised when they realised they “ultimately couldn’t claim ownership over every element of the film if AI generated parts of it.”
This same approach was also applied to Disney’s upcoming film Tron: Ares, which ironically focuses on the threats of AI and its real-world implications. Despite this, the report also claims that an AI-generated sidekick for Jeff Bridges’ character was originally flaunted as a strategy before being scrapped.
It comes as the implications of AI are beginning to be considered more seriously across the industry, with more than 1,500 UK actors recently signing an open letter to express their extreme concern at being unknowingly scanned for similar deepfake processes.
The live action remake of Moana is set to hit screens in 2026, while Tron: Ares will be released on October 10th.
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