Top Gun: Maverick Used An A.I. Audio Trick To Bring Back Val Kilmer

gamerant.com:

As Top: Gun Maverick shows, sometimes reality has a huge effect on the shape certain works of fiction take. It's pretty easy to let current events shape a narrative, after all, and doing so can make the whole experience feel that much more relevant. However, sometimes those influences are on a smaller scale. But in many cases, they're no less poignant.

One of the latest to take this philosophy to the heart is the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which is already setting box office records. The Tom Cruise film has been blowing away audiences both new and returning, particularly giving the latter group a lot to be excited about. Many long-time fans already knew of a certain actor's return. But given real-life circumstances, the manner of his appearance remained a mystery.

Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick Has A Very Specific Audience

Movie icon Val Kilmer, who appeared in the original Top Gun as Tom «Iceman» Kazansky, was pretty much guaranteed to show up in the sequel. But after the actor's throat cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment in 2014, he lost his ability to speak. To both honor Kilmer and make things more accurate to real life, the folks behind Top Gun: Maverick changed his character around so that Iceman had also developed cancer and could only communicate via keyboard. But they added one more surprise to the movie, and it shares similarities with Star Wars, of all things.

Kilmer actually gets 1 speaking line in the movie. But given the actor's own inability to talk, this was actually accomplished via a complex A.I. program. Similar to how The Book of Boba Fett recreated Mark Hamill's voice, Top Gun: Maverick used a sophisticated A.I. comprised of numerous archival samples of Kilmer's speaking voice to create