🎬 The Death Of Live-Action Movie Stardom Is Near — And It May Not Be A Bad Thing
(PS: Bookmark this. Revisit in 2028.) – [Article by Dr Ope Banwo, Mayor Of Fadeyi and Founder, AiFlix360 Films]

Let’s stop playing — the future of acting is synthetic, and that future is not 10 years away.

It’s not even five.

It’s three years or maybe even much less.

By December 2028 (and most likely much sooner), the entertainment industry will cross a line it can’t return from:

🎥 When we do make that inevitable turn in human evolution in movies, You won’t be able to tell the difference between AI-generated characters and real-life actors.

And when that happens — and it will as sure as their day and night — the very foundation of celebrity stardom in movies will crumble, unless it evolves fast.

🔁 The New Reality: Licensing, Not Casting

Actors of the future will license their image, voice, and personality — just like musicians license their masters or authors their publishing rights. The smart ones will negotiate royalty deals for the digital versions of themselves that star in films they may never physically shoot.

Why? Because AI tools like Veo, Kling, RunwayML and whatever revolutionary model inevitably emerges (ie.. a “ChatGPT of character realism” from currently an unknown company) will be able to:

– Generate consistent, emotive, cinematic performances
– ⁠Maintain visual and vocal continuity across dozens of projects
– ⁠Build fanbases around AI personas the same way we once did around Schwarzenegger or Genevieve or Aki and Pawpaw

Already, tools like Runway, Eleven Labs, and Pika are rapidly shrinking the gap. The next evolution is inevitable — hyper-realistic AI actors with consistent digital identities.

🤖 You May Laugh Now, But History will Decide The Argument

In 2014, I told a room of Alaba movie distributors that VCDs would die, and the next Nollywood frontier would be making movies with multi million budgets for free release on YouTube. They laughed. They said it was theory. Today, YouTube is the main theater for most small and medium Nigerian filmmakers with even big name actors like Omoni Oboli dabbling into straight-to-YouTube videos .

That moment of disbelief is happening again — but this time, it’s about AI cinema.

We are already watching it unfold though many who are not so discerning are focusing on the mechanical voices and obviously Ai looking acting . They are not projecting from what they saw in 2023, to what they are seeing right now to guess what will surely happen in 3 years.

In October 2024, I created a musician named Mugu Prince — an AI musician with a covered face, à la Lagbaja — simply because I couldn’t yet create a consistent visual identity for him. I jsit kept creating 100% ai songs using ai tools and releasing it online without drama. I got to like 30 songs and stopped . Today, ‘Mugu Prince’ (Ai creation) now has fans on SoundCloud, ITunes and Spotify, and has even received some invitations to perform at shows and festivals which I of course ignored since Ai can’t go on stage yet😎.

ALL of Mugu Prince listeners have no clue he’s 100% artificial. Nobody has even queried his songs or humanity in more than 8 months on Spotify , SoundCloud, ITunes, Amazon etc and earning royalties for me too . And this is just the beginning.

🧠 What Made Real Life Actors Valuable Was Recognition — AI Can Earn That Too

Let’s be honest: what made actors valuable was not just their skill, but their visibility, consistency, and fan connection. And once an AI actor is featured across 10, 20, 30 films with a consistent look and voice, it will form its own fanbase. That digital character will become a superstar in its own right.

That’s how live actors became famous too — repeated exposure, not just talent.

AI is now learning to replicate that model. And once the tech solves automated character continuity and performance delivery without deepface-swaps or prompt gymnastics, the floodgates will open.

And they will. Within 36 months. Guaranteed.

🎭 What Will Be Left for Human Actors?

*Live actors will still have relevance — but it will shift to things like:
• Public appearances
• Brand endorsements
• Stage plays
• Political activism
• Cultural relevance

But in mainstream cinema, they may still play, but they will no longer be critical. Why would I bother with the problematic diva when I can reproduce a better one in my laptop ? The movie world will run largely on licensed likenesses, AI avatars, and synthetic performers.

📅 My Audacious Prediction for the cinema industry:

By December 2028, the AI-generated actor will be indistinguishable from live actors — not just in looks, but in emotional performance, voice modulation, nuance, and physicality.

And when even fans can’t tell the difference, the debate ends. Ai Licensing begins.

So clip this. Save it. Revisit in January 2028.

History will prove me right. Again.

My Name is Dr Ope Banwo and I have said what I said . Let’s talk again in 2028 on this matter🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️