AI shows what Steve Irwin might look like now if he’d survived stingray attack

Steve Irwin was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist and environmentalist who rose to fame largely thanks to his television work in the 1990s.

Dubbed “The Crocodile Hunter” – which was the name of one his shows – Steve also presented several other documentaries alongside his wife Terri, including Croc Files, The Crocodile Diaries and New Breed Vets. His life was tragically cut short in 2006, however, after a stingray injury in the Great Barrier Reef proved fatal.

The stingray’s attack pierced the 44-year-old’s heart as he filmed a segment for his daughter Bindi’s own show, Bindi the Jungle Girl. Steve’s passing triggered an overwhelming wave of sorrow from his admirers worldwide, and even sparked a series of retaliatory actions against stingrays along the Australian coastline.

READ MORE:Inside Steve Irwin’s mysterious ‘death tape’ which should ‘never be seen’

READ MORE:Steve Irwin’s son bitten on face by python just like croc hunter dad in ‘Déjà vu’ moment

Now, in pictures generated by Midjourney, the AI system has revealed how Steve would look now had he survived his trauma 18 years ago and lived to his 62nd birthday (February 22).

The first AI generated snap of Steve shows the star’s hair slightly greyed as he poses alongside a crocodile. Despite Steve’s encounters with crocs, snakes, and sharks, he maintained an unwavering rule that the cameras must never stop rolling.

Indeed, the freak incident that claimed his life was captured by the camera crew. However, the whereabouts of this footage today remain shrouded in mystery. “He tells his camera crew to always be filming,” his IMDb biographer Tommy Donovan once said.

In a cruel twist of fate, Steve was not meant to be at sea with Bindi – now 25 – on that ill-fated September 4. Filming for his show, Ocean’s Deadliest, was cancelled due to inclement weather, prompting him to head off with cameraman Justin Lyons and director John Stainton to the Port Douglas coast.

John recalled: “Suddenly, he expressed interest in encountering some typically harmless stingrays. It should have been an innocuous encounter for a children’s program.” Spotting a 220lb ray on the ocean floor, Steve and Justin entered the chest-deep waters, anticipating the usually tranquil creature to swim away upon their approach.

However, upon Steve’s passage over the creature, it raised its serrated tail, striking him with “hundreds of strikes in a few seconds.” As Steve writhed in agony from the venom, both Justin and John feared a punctured lung, and applied pressure to the substantial wound. Justin then performed mouth-to-mouth on Steve for an hour until paramedics declared him deceased upon arrival.

Here in a second snap AI shows a wrinkly Steve with hair closer in similarity to when he was alive. The late star appears to be wearing a leather jacket as he embraces a croc for the camera. As with the first image, Steve looks as though he’s been in the thick of the action by the river, with dirt across his face.

In the year’s after Steve’s death, John revealed the star had made a “very, very weird” speech before he passed away. Appearing on the I’ve Got News For You podcast, John explained that the speech came just couple of days before his final journey.

“A couple of days before we started the show, he made a little speech to all the crew that were up there catching crocs for his research trip which I joined at the end with our crew to do the deadliest movie. And it was really weird,” he said. “He was sort of thanking them all for being who they were and for helping him. It was like a ‘finale’ speech. Very weird.”

Here in a third AI generated pic Steve can be seen smiling sweetly in the forest as he holds a snake. Again with grey hair, this time Steve is wearing one of his trademark camo-coloured jackets with a blue shirt underneath. With a strap over his right shoulder Steve appears to be carrying a backpack on his adventure.

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Bindi is now a star in her own right, meanwhile, as is Steve’s son, Robert. A report in 2023 by Yahoo claimed that the former, who has become a conservationist and TV personality herself, could be earning more than £820,000 ($1m) per year. Bindi has hosted her own TV series since she was eight years old, including Bindi the Jungle Girl and Bindi’s Bootcamp.

She has also starred alongside Robert and Terri in Crikey! It’s the Irwins, as well as making appearances in 2002 film The Wiggles: Wiggly Safari and Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove in 2010.

Robert on the other hand has gone on to work full-time in the Australia Zoo, dealing with animals his father used to decades ago – including crocodiles and snakes. But outside of his day job, he has managed to become a secret millionaire, as his net worth continues to rise, largely due to his multiple TV projects.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk