When I was a kid I saw Yellow Submarine and loved it. Spending time with my beloved Beatles as animated characters with magical powers was super fun.
But then at some point I found out that the voices of John, Paul, George and Ringo were not actually performed by John, Paul, George and Ringo, but rather by hired actors. The Fab Four had nothing at all to do with the movie other than having supplied the songs it was based on and then appearing briefly over the closing credits.
Learning this felt like a betrayal. Somebody was impersonating my favorite music group, without really having made it clear that it was all a mere impersonation.
I now realize that this was a harbinger of the future. As generative AI becomes mature, we are going to see a lot more of this kind of thing — except this time in live action.
Beloved popular figures will license their voice and appearance to surrogates. We will gradually find ourselves seeing and hearing less of the real thing, and more of the imitation.
Eventually, the only objections will come from senior citizens who remember the old days, when people actually played themselves. Young folks who grow up with this won’t understand what those old codgers are going on about.