It’s the year of digital de-aging, but with no fear of the Uncanny Valley in sight. In Marvel blockbuster “Captain Marvel,” Lola VFX took 25 years off 70-year-old Samuel L. Jackson as future S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury for the first time without the use of a digital double, and we can expect further strides in the technique with Ang Lee’s October release “Gemini Man” and Martin Scorsese’s Netflix mob drama “The Irishman.”

In Lee’s sci-fi thriller, Weta Digital tackles elite assassin Will Smith getting stalked by his younger clone, and, in Scorsese’s gangster epic, Industrial Light & Magic removes decades from Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in crucial flashbacks as real-life mob hitman Frank Sheeran and labor union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Weta’s work on the mo-capped younger Smith clone, however, represents a major advancement in the de-aging technique (under the...