Watching Star Wars: Rogue One recently I was struck with an unsettling thought. Is acting, as we know it, about to die? A corollary to this same thought, ironically, was: will actors never die? As you may know, the film utilizes state-of-the-art computer-generated technology to bring back two characters from the original 1977 Star Wars film. In the case of Grand Moff Tarkin, the commander of the Death Star, the original actor who parlayed the role Peter Cushing died in 1994. Here they had another actor, Guy Henry, play the role but then superimposed Cushing`s likeness digitally on Henry`s face, bringing Cushing back to life with new lines of dialogue 22 years after he passed away.

In the case of Princess Leia Organa, although actor Carrie Fisher was still alive when Rogue One came out she died very soon after the filmmakers had Ingvild Deila portray the iconic princess` character and then superimposed the young Fisher`s digital likeness on to her. They also used archival audio from Fisher to recreate her youthful voice.

While this technology is still in its infancy in many ways, it has become advanced enough that most viewers who were too young to have watched the original film in cinemas when it came out probably could not tell the difference between a digitally-created character and the real live actor. This begs the question: what is `acting`? And who gets the credit for it? Obviously, it is not the original actor.

Of course, this sort of cinematic manipulation has been carrying on for a few years now. For example, in 2015`s Terminator Genisys the fifth Terminator film of the franchise bodybuilder Brett Azar stood in for 1984`s Arnold Schwarzenegger who has to battle the older Schwarzenegger in a key scene in the film. Azar`s face was replaced by that of the younger Schwarzenegger. The former California governor had also made a brief appearance, only via a digital recreation, in the fourth franchise film, Terminator Salvation, in 2009.

The issue of what acting really means was also raised with King Kong (2005).

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), wherein actor Andy Serkis provided the performance capture basis for the movement and expressions of characters of King Kong and the chimpanzee Caesar which were digitally created. But unlike in the case of these films which needed CGI (computer-generated imagery) to create non-human characters, we are now entering uncharted territory where actual speaking human roles can be created through technological gimmickry.

Imagine for a moment a scenario where the technology improves as it surely will so that it becomes more feasible for filmmakers to `create` human actors rather than employ them. No more issues with scheduling, no more issues with high actor fees, no more issues with insurance, no more issues with actors not being able to deliver the right emotion for their directors, no more danger that your star will grow old or die in the middle of a franchise.

Despite our love for good acting and the star power of certain actors, it is also true that many producers and directors are resentful of the power that big-name actors exert on projects, in terms of costs but also in terms of their ability to put a project on hold because of theirnakhras. Although the majority of actors are hard-working and give their all to the projects they work on, stories of how certain stars keep everyone else waiting and make unreasonable demands are also legion.

I know at least two big-name producers who are very dismissive of the value that big-name stars bring to a film project. They simply do not think the stars are worth the expense, in pure monetary terms. Of course sometimes the stars are also talented actors and the danger with working with less experienced actors is that they may not be able to bring the same emotional power to their performances as the more established ones. But what if directors could extract what they need from a digital performance? There would be no need for multiple take.

Conversely, weII-known actors could continue to `act` well beyond their lifetimes. And stars would never stop dazzling us (except they wouldn`t be there on red carpets). Unsettling, isn`t it? Of course none is this is going to happen immediately. And talented actors bring more to their performances than simply what the director or writer envisions. In fact, it is often the unpredictability of a good actor`s interpretation of a role that adds an unexpected value to a film. As a director, I also know that part of the rewards of filmmaking is the joy of a good collaboration, which brings elements into play that one may not have initially thought about.

But technology is changing the face of the world we live in. It`s already changed the process of filmmaking itself. Perhaps it`s time actors too begin to think about how it might impact their profession.

Hasan Zaidi writes as a filmmaker and director of the KaraFilm Festival.

He tweets at @hyzaidi