When Val Kilmer died on April 1 of last year, I honestly believed it was a tasteless April Fool's joke. After all, rumors of celebrity deaths pop up on social media frequently, only to be debunked. Alas, it was true, however. After years of battling throat cancer, Kilmer succumbed to the illness at the age of 65.
That battle with throat cancer had limited his career, and during his final onscreen appearance, reprising his role as Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick," Kilmer typed some of his dialogue. The few lines he did speak were enhanced by AI-generated voice that used audio of Kilmer to recreate his pre-cancer voice.
"The Navy needs Maverick," Kilmer says. "The kid needs Maverick. That's why I fought for you. That's why you're still here." It's a powerful scene, and it's clear Kilmer and Cruise know the end is coming (you can watch it here).
Kilmer's battle with cancer threw a wrench into a project prior to "Top Gun: Maverick." In 2020, he was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.” His disease preventing him from ever making it to the set.
Now, thanks to AI and the blessing of Kilmer's daughter, Mercedes, he will appear on screen as Father Fintan when the movie is released later this year.
FIRST LOOK: Val Kilmer has been resurrected via AI to star in the new movie "As Deep as the Grave."
— Variety (@Variety) March 18, 2026
Kilmer was cast in the movie in 2020, five years before his death. But he was too sick amid his throat cancer battle to ever make it to set. Now an AI version of the actor is… pic.twitter.com/OjWHUdrsXn
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” says the film’s writer and director Coerte Voorhees. “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.”
Even though he didn’t shoot a single scene, Voorhees has been able to realize his vision of having Kilmer in the ensemble by using state-of-the-art generative AI. And he’s done it with the cooperation of the late actor’s estate and his daughter Mercedes (Voorhees says Kilmer’s son Jack is also supportive).
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” says Coerte Voorhees. “He really thought it was important story that he wanted his name on. It was that support that gave me the confidence to say, okay let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”
I can understand and sympathize with Kilmer's daughter. My dad will be gone six years in April, and I miss him tremendously. It would be nice to see him again, I'm sure my children, who lost their father in 2024, would feel the same way. So from that perspective, of a grieving child, I have to respect her decision.
But I also am deeply uncomfortable with the resurrection of people via AI, with or without the blessing of their family. We've seen this pop up in the past. Last November, I wrote about an AI app created by 2wai, that allows people to speak to their deceased loved ones in perpetuity. Such a product attempts to erase death which is, unfortunately, a part of life.
Back then, I compared this to the Ship of Theseus, a philosophical thought experiment in which one has to consider whether or not a ship, with every single plank replaced over time, is still the same ship.
In the same way, is someone — whether it's Val Kilmer or your late grandma — is the same person if every bit of them has been replaced with lines of code? Yes, the first images of Kilmer in the film look like him. He'll probably sound like himself, too.
Yet it's not Kilmer. Whatever happens on screen, that's not Kilmer acting. Acting is an improvisational art that requires tremendous talent and subtlety. I think of this scene in the film 'Heat,' and the facial expressions Kilmer makes when his character's wife waves him off. Only Kilmer could make those choices. The programmer, or algorithm, that recreated his AI doppelganger may program facial expressions, but that's not the real thing.
This opens up a world where humans aren't needed. While I can't think of a class more deserving of the unemployment line than the current crop of Hollywood celebrities, replacing people and humanity with lines of code is troubling and a slippery slope we should not go down. It's Hollywood and sci-fi writers who have shown us what dystopian futures await when we embrace AI; we'd be wise to heed those warnings.
Before he speaks to Cruise in "Top Gun: Maverick," Kilmer types out a line on his computer: "It's time to let go." Those five simple words carry with them a lot of weight, power, and truth.
When it comes to AI, it's most definitely time to let go.