Netflix's upcoming competition series Wonka's The Golden Ticket will feature an AI rebuild of Gene Wilder's voice as Willy Wonka, heard in the trailer released this week. Wilder's widow, Karen, gave the estate's blessing, framing the show as a way to bring his performance to younger viewers.
In the show, 12 golden-ticket winners compete in pairs through physical, mental and moral challenges inside the factory. Rusty Goffe, an Oompa Loompa in the 1971 film, also appears. It is the latest project from Netflix's ownership of the Roald Dahl Story Company, bought in 2021.
The trailer ends on a line of the synthetic Wilder voice. Several other actors have played Wonka on screen since, from Johnny Depp to Timothée Chalamet, and Taika Waititi is voicing him in a coming Netflix animated film, but the show chose the original.
Some viewers online objected to the AI voice, calling it distasteful and saying the studio should have cast a real performer. The series premieres on 23 September, with a two-part finale on 30 September.
Sources · 1