Wonka's The Golden Ticket controversy explained: Netflix revived Gene Wilder's voice with AI
Netflix looked at the wreckage of that 2024 Glasgow "Willy's Chocolate Experience" — the one with the meth-lab bouncy castle and the crying children — and thought: what if we did that, but prestige, and with a dead man's voice? Thus, Wonka's The Golden Ticket, premiering September 23.
The format is fine, whatever: 12 golden ticket winners run a gauntlet of "physical, mental, and moral challenges" inside a built-out chocolate factory for a life-changing prize. The problem is the narrator. It's Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder died in 2016.
The voice from beyond the veil
Netflix partnered with ElevenLabs to recreate Wilder's Wonka voice with AI, and the trailer leads with the synthetic ghost announcing: "For the first time in decades, I'm opening my beloved chocolate factory." Reader, the chocolate factory is a soundstage, and the man is a waveform.
To be scrupulously fair, this is fully authorized. Wilder's widow, Karen Wilder, signed off and says she's delighted:
"More than five decades after Gene brought Willy Wonka to life, people of all ages and backgrounds around the world continue to find joy," she said in the announcement.
The internet, in unison: absolutely not
The reaction was instant and biblical. A sampler from the replies:
- "I hope this gets cancelled. Stop using AI."
- The voice "lacks emotion, no soul no depth" — harsh, but the man it's imitating had nothing but soul, so
- A recurring, very reasonable question: you could have just... hired a voice actor? An impressionist? Literally a guy?
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It doesn't help that we've been here before — Stan Lee's cloned voice got the same reception — or that Wilder's own Wonka was famous precisely for the flicker of menace and warmth no model can fake. The show hits September 23. The scary tunnel scene, presumably, is the terms of service.
Previously we wrote: Survivor 7 cast: where are they now? One of them went on to win the whole thing again
