The 10 most disastrous digital rejuvenations in movies and series, including the little-known Netflix disaster

The de-aging, so the digital rejuvenation of stars, is a trend that is becoming more and more common as a visual effect in films and series. In 2023 alone, for example, we saw an aged Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and The Wheel of Destiny, a virtually rejuvenated Skeet Ulrich in Scream VI, and Samuel L. Jackson, who had fallen into the computer fountain of youth, in Secret Invasion.

We take the inflationary CGI makeover as an opportunity to focus on the 10 worst de-aging performances by stars looking back We did not include actors in the list that were created entirely on the computer without the participation of the respective star (e.g. Carrie Fisher in her posthumous Star Wars cameos or Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Salvation).

It’s also important to note that we’re showing you the Rejuvenation Disasters here with images, but you actually have to have them for the full effect experience in moving images.

10. Unknown Netflix slip-up: Marin Sheen deserved better than this makeover

The example of proves how much de-aging has now arrived in the film and series world Martin Sheen in Grace and Frankie. A flashback shows the loveless deduction of years of life in the 3rd episode of the 7th season. The result is a face without depth, embarrassingly hiding its failed anti-aging effect behind blurs and a turtleneck rationalized away. It’s just a short scene (at minute 15), but the Netflix series would have preferred to stay away from that.

9. Robert De Niro has a CGI problem in Netflix’s The Irishman

Martin Scorsese delivered his crime epic about gangster Frank Sheeran to Netflix in 2019. In doing so covered Robert DeNiro in The Irishman a wide age range of the Jimmy Hoffa hitman. Its visual rejuvenation was the most excessive use of the effect in a film to date, and it was sometimes more, sometimes less convincing. But hard to ignore was the gap between the looks of a young man who moved with the movements of an aging gentleman. A pitfall that further undermined credibility.

8. Failed sci-fi film desecrates Will Smith’s youth

Ang Lee sent Will Smith in Gemini Man (2019) into a sci-fi battle against his younger self. Since the world had witnessed the youth of the Fresh Prince, the clone duel, with the rejuvenated Will Smith appearing here, always came across as uncomfortably artificial. The film *, which can only be rented in the stream at the moment, seemed almost amateurish in its de-aging – even though Ang Lee had already delivered amazing CGI work in his films with Life of Pi.

7. Amazon’s superhero movie steals more than Sylvester Stallone’s wrinkles

Amazon Prime* gave us 2022
Sylvester Stallone in Samaritan. A boy suspects his aging neighbor is actually an incognito superhero in the sci-fi action film. The story also delves into his past. Unfortunately, in these flashbacks, without his iconic facial lines, the CGI-rejuvenated Stallone comes across as a cobbled-together plastic action figure who’s lost his facial expressions entirely in favor of a new beard color.

6. Star Wars series gets ridicule for Mark Hamill’s aging backwards

Even if the appearance of Luke Skywalker at the end of season 2 was a narrative surprise, the complicated rejuvenation was convincing Mark Hamill in The Mandalorian not completely. Not all facial features were right, which even led fans to lend a hand to improve them. His next appearance in Episode 6 of Star Wars: The Boba Fett Book looked a lot better, but the rejuvenated Luke’s series debut didn’t exactly cover itself with glory.

5. X-Men got the awkward start on de-aging

The third X-Men feature film has the dubious role of being the first sensational work to digitally rejuvenate its cast for the narrative. And so Professor X and Magneto aka Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in X-Men: The Last Stand 2006 on doors they can’t close today on Disney+*. The fact that Patrick Stewart’s hair didn’t even have to be changed and that he still looked completely wrong with dead eyes is quite a (negative) achievement.

4. In the Netflix sci-fi film, Catherine Keener’s young double becomes a comic figure

In 2022, Netflix sent Ryan Reynolds back in time to his 12-year-old self. However, while his younger version was played by a different cast member, he had Catherine Keener in The Adam Project not that lucky. The villain had to face a horribly de-aged version of herself who, embarrassingly, looked only vaguely like her. Especially if you knew the actress well from earlier roles like Being John Malkovich when she was younger.

3. Johnny Depp’s digital misstep: De-aged in Pirates of the Caribbean

Captain Jack Sparrow also had to undergo the CGI wellness regimen and so played Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) a significantly younger version of himself that took him back to his pirate beginnings. The adventure didn’t put much effort into it and even tried to save work by simply hiding the upper half of Depp’s face under a headscarf. Disney+* lets you experience it again. The rejuvenation in part 5 is all the more ironic because the pirate was looking for a fountain of youth in part 4 Pirates of the Caribbean. Would he have preferred to keep his hands off it?

2. Robert Downey Jr. sadly falls into Marvel’s spooky fountain of youth

Whether Michael Douglas in Ant-Man, Alfred Molina in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or Michelle Pfeiffer in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Marvel regularly uses de-aging technology. Sometimes with success, sometimes less. The MCU took the biggest step with Robert Downey Jr in The First Avenger: Civil War (2016) to make her a teenager again. With the unpleasant result of a smoothed-out “teenager” who emerged from the depths of the Uncanny Valley as a seemingly digitally enhanced body-eater alien – and with the voice of a 50-year-old. At Disney+* you can experience it again if you dare.

1st place: Jeff Bridges’ digitally rejuvenated catastrophe in Tron Legacy

The rejuvenated actor who tops it all is Jeff Bridges in the sci-fi sequel Tron Legacy. In 2010, de-aging technology might not have advanced that far, but its young variant bears only a vague resemblance to a real human. He seems more like a computer game. That may (unintentionally) fit the movie, but it also goes to show that something has gone wrong here. There are now even deepfake videos of this * catastrophe to be streamed on Disney+, which show how much more convincing it would be to do it at home today:

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