‘This is what Val wanted’ — Val Kilmer’s AI movie return has his family’s blessing, but it feels deeply unsettling

• Val Kilmer is being brought back via generative AI for an upcoming movie
• Director Coerte Voorhees says 'it's what Val wanted'
• Even Kilmer's children have voiced their support for this, but it's still a little unsettling

Late Hollywood icon Val Kilmer is about to make a posthumous big screen appearance — and it’s all thanks to generative AI.

As reported by Variety Kilmer, who passed in 2025, will be resurrected for the historical action movie As Deep As The Grave directed by Coerte Voorhees, which Kilmer was cast for all the way back in 2020. However, his declining health and throat cancer diagnosis prevented him from making it to the set, but despite not having shot a single scene, Voorhees is seeking alternative ways to keep the actor at the core of the film.

Using ‘state of the art generative AI’, Kilmer’s role in the movie will be envisioned using recorded voice samples, as well as various images of Kilmer throughout the decades to help depict the character in different stages of life. According to Voorhees, the AI-generated character will star in ‘a significant part’ of the final product, and he doubled down on his creative choices when talking to Variety.

“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” claims Voorhees, who added “It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest. I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it”. But Voorhees hasn’t done this alone.

The approval and, surprisingly positive, support from Kilmer’s own family also helped to spearhead the creative choice, which was backed by his daughter Mercedes and son Jack — who both claim this is something their late father would’ve also supported.

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes Kilmer shared in a statement. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part”.

The upcoming movie, which is projected for a 2026 release, is based on the true story of Southwestern archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris (Abigail Lawrie & Tom Felton) set between the 1920s and 1940s. Kilmer was cast as Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist Father Fintan, aligning with Voorhees’ statement above. But even though the project has overwhelming support from Kilmer’s family, it still doesn’t sit quite right with me as a movie-goer.

Analysis: The uncanny valley of it all

First off, when you look at the teaser image of the AI-generated Val Kilmer, it goes without saying that what has been produced is quite impressive. The final product looks just like Kilmer, and it’s evident that whatever generative AI model the production team has used has succeeded in reading the existing photos of the actor. However, the uncanny valley of it all throws me off a little.

At first glance, it’s just Val Kilmer, but the more time I spend examining the image, the more it just becomes even clearer that it’s AI-generated, and the artificial sunset in the background doesn’t help either. The best comparison I can draw is to The Polar Express (2004), a movie I watched as a kid that prompted the million-dollar question: Are those real actors?

And I know what you're thinking, "What about when this is used on musicians?" For me, there's a big difference. When you attend an event like the ABBA Voyage residency in London, which uses holographic technology to bring the members of the band to life, you go into it not only knowing it's all designed by hologram but with the intention of appreciating the technical and artistic skill it takes to create such a spectacle.

This tech integration poses, perhaps, deeper questions, like how Kilmer's AI character will affect the movie-going experience.

Will Kilmer’s appearance prove too much of a distraction for movie-goers, as they know it’s AI-generated beforehand? Will it overshadow the movie’s message? Or will movie-goers simply look past it, and digest the character as though it were Val Kilmer himself? Either way, you can bet that you'll have my full verdict once it's been released.

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