De-aging in film

In film and television, de-aging is a visual effects technique used to make an actor look younger, especially for flashback scenes. This is often accomplished via digitally editing the image or using computer-generated imagery (CGI) overlays or touch-ups. Some movies will even create de-aged digital actors from scratch or with a mixture of stand-ins and CGI.

List of film and television series

The following is a list of films and television series, in chronological order of release, that employ de-aging techniques:

Year	Film	Description
2006	X-Men: The Last Stand	Actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, who play the mutants Professor X and Magneto respectively, are de-aged in a flashback scene in which the two work together to recruit a mutant girl (Jean Grey) as a student.
2008	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Based on a short story in which the protagonist ages backwards, actor Brad Pitt, who plays Benjamin Button, is initially shown as elderly and is gradually de-aged to look progressively younger as numerous decades of the character's life go by.
2009	X-Men Origins: Wolverine	In this superhero film, Patrick Stewart, who plays mutant Professor X, is de-aged for a brief cameo appearance, as the film takes place earlier in the timeline than the previous films of the series in which Stewart participated.
2009	Surrogates	Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who controls a look-alike humanoid robot de-aged to appear in his mid 30s. The effect supervised by visual effects artist Mark Stetson relied on makeup, lighting, and digital effects.
2010	Tron: Legacy	A sequel to the 1982 film, set 28 years later, actor Jeff Bridges, who plays the protagonist Kevin Flynn in the original film, is de-aged to appear as Flynn's younger self in flashbacks and as the corrupt program Clu, a copy of Flynn himself, but decades younger. Bruce Boxleitner, who plays the title character of Tron, also appears de-aged in flashbacks; his real world character of Alan Bradley, however, appears as the actor's natural age.
2013	Grudge Match	A film about Robert De Niro (Billy "The Kid" McDonnen) and Sylvester Stallone (Henry "Razor" Sharp) as boxing rivals. In the beginning of the film, both actors are de-aged to show them fighting each other in their youth/prime. The rest of the film is set several decades later.
2013	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	This film is set decades before The Lord of the Rings film trilogy; actor Orlando Bloom reprises his role as the Elf character Legolas and is de-aged in his scenes, to reflect the fact that the film's Elves do not age.
2014	Kingsman: The Secret Service	Michael Caine was digitally de-aged for a scene set in 1975 featuring his character. This scene was ultimately cut from the film and has never been publicly released.
2015	Ant-Man	Michael Douglas and Martin Donovan, who play Hank Pym and Mitchell Carson, are both de-aged by 25 years, in a flashback scene set in 1989.
2016	Pee-wee's Big Holiday	In this comedy film, actor Paul Reubens reprises his role as Pee-wee Herman 28 years after the previous Pee-wee film. De-aging was applied to Reubens to make him appear the same age as he was in his last appearance. During filming, Reubens wore powder and tape on his face.
2016	Fan	In this Indian film, Shah Rukh Khan stars in a double role as film star Aryan Khanna and obsessive fan Gaurav Chandna, who looks like Aryan but is around twenty years younger. Khan was de-aged for the part of Gaurav with a combination of visual effects and prosthetics.
2016	Captain America: Civil War	Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark, is de-aged in a digital recreation of a pivotal moment from the character's youth.
2016	Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children	Terence Stamp, who plays Abe Portman, is de-aged in the scenes in the loop of September 3, 1943, when he was in the army.
2017	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	Kurt Russell, who plays Ego, is de-aged in a flashback scene set on Earth in 1980.
2017	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	In this swashbuckler, Johnny Depp, who plays the main character Jack Sparrow, is de-aged for a flashback scene.
2017	Kingsman: The Golden Circle	Colin Firth was de-aged for a flashback scene, years before the events of the first film.
2018	Ant-Man and the Wasp	Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Laurence Fishburne who play Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, and Bill Foster, respectively, are de-aged in flashback sequences.
2018	Aquaman	Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman are de-aged characters using CGI to portray Aquaman's parents, Thomas Curry and Atlanna, in opening scenes set during Aquaman's childhood. In addition, CGI was used to de-age Willem Dafoe for the scene where Nuidis Vulko trains the young Arthur Curry.
2019	Captain Marvel	Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg, who portray Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, are de-aged by 23 years for the entire film as it is set in 1995 (but filmed in 2018), whereas the previous films in which they had appeared in these roles had all been set in the present day.
2019	Avengers: Endgame	Multiple actors were digitally de-aged for different sequences. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner were digitally de-aged for their 2012 appearances that recreate scenes from The Avengers (2012) in which they respectively portray Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton. Michael Douglas, John Slattery, and Stan Lee were also digitally de-aged for their 1970s appearances, in which they respectively portray Hank Pym, Howard Stark, and a car driver. The final cut of the film features 200 de-aging and aging shots.
2019	It Chapter Two	Horror sequel in which child actors Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, and Jackson Robert Scott were digitally de-aged to reprise their roles from It (2017) in flashback scenes, having visibly aged in the two-year interval.
2019	Gemini Man	In this science fiction film, actor Will Smith was de-aged to portray a younger clone of his character.
2019	The Irishman	In this epic crime film, actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci were digitally de-aged to portray younger versions of Frank Sheeran, Jimmy Hoffa, and Russell Bufalino respectively.
2020	Bill & Ted Face the Music	A comic science fiction film starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted "Theodore" Logan. They portray younger and older versions of Bill & Ted.
2021	Coming 2 America	In this comedic sequel, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were de-aged in a flashback.
2021	Candyman	Tony Todd, reprising his role as the original Candyman, appears de-aged at the end of the film.
2021	Spider-Man: No Way Home	Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina reprised their roles as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin and Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus, respectively, and were both de-aged by 19 and 17 years respectively to match their younger appearances from 2002's Spider-Man and 2004's Spider-Man 2, respectively.
2022	Scream	Skeet Ulrich reprises his role of Billy Loomis from the original Scream (1996).
2022	Star Trek: Picard	At the end of the second-season premiere, John de Lancie appears as Q did in Star Trek: The Next Generation for a few moments, before the character uses his powers to instantly age his physical appearance (reflecting de Lancie's current age) to match Patrick Stewart's, who is playing an elderly Jean-Luc Picard.
2022	The Adam Project	In this science fiction film, actress Catherine Keener was de-aged to portray a younger version of her character.
2022	The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent	Nicolas Cage portrays Nicky Cage, a figment of Cage's imagination, seen as a younger Wild at Heart-era version of himself.
2022	Acharya	A de-aged Chiranjeevi appears as a younger version of his character in a flashback scene.
2022	Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers	A de-aged Paula Abdul appears as herself in a flashback scene.
2022	Vikram	A de-aged Kamal Haasan appears as himself in flashback scenes. The appearance for these scenes were referenced from the actor’s 1986 movie which incidentally had the same title
2022	Obi-Wan Kenobi	In Part V, both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen were de-aged 20 to 17 years to match their appearances from 2002's Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and 2005's Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in flashback scenes.

Virtual actors

In some cases, a young version of a character is not played by the original actor but by a virtual actor, even though the actor being represented is usually still alive. This is usually accomplished with some combination of CGI, a body double, and a voice double or archival audio. Examples of actors who were replaced by virtual actors to portray their younger selves include:

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as T-800 in Terminator Salvation (2009); Roland Kickinger served as body double.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys (2015) in a scene which depicts the same T-800 from The Terminator; Brett Azar served as body double.
• Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016); Guy Henry served as both body and voice double.
• Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) - Ingvild Deila served as body double; archive audio of Carrie Fisher's voice, taken from outtakes of her hologram scene in A New Hope, was used. - and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) - Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd served as body double.
• Sean Young as Rachael in Blade Runner 2049 (2017) where a clone of the replicant is created by Niander Wallace and is offered to Rick Deckard in exchange for information. Loren Peta served as body double, while archival audio clips of Young were used for the voice.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) - although all three appeared in their film as their current ages, virtual actors were used for their characters in flashback scenes. Brett Azar, Maddy Curley and Jude Collie served as the three characters' body doubles, respectively.
• Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in "Chapter 16: The Rescue", the sixteenth episode of The Mandalorian (2020); Max Lloyd Jones served as body double, while Hamill's younger voice was recreated using speech synthesis through machine learning.
• Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in "Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger", the sixth episode of The Book of Boba Fett (2021); Graham Hamilton was the on-set performer for the character. Skywalker was largely created through visual effects and synthesized speech based on reference images and recordings, respectively, of Hamill.
• Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven / Jane Hopper ("El") in Stranger Things (2022); Martie Blair served as body double. Blair stood-in for the 9 year old version of Eleven, and her face was digitally replaced with Brown’s in post-production.