Netflix downloads the late Gene Wilder's voice for a Willy Wonka game show

Today in Another One Of These? news, Netflix has generated a simulation of the late Gene Wilder’s voice for its latest reality competition. Arbitrarily celebrating the rarely heralded 55th anniversary of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Netflix has announced another “high-stakes social experiment” called Wonka’s Golden Ticket that it hopes will be appetizing enough to get an elderly layabout on his feet again. Recreating the set of Mel Stuart’s 1971 film, which remains the go-to Wonka reference point despite two other blockbuster attempts at reimagining the film, Netflix invites contestants to navigate a series of games based on the movie and Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. The challenges are designed to test contestants physically, mentally, and morally, requiring them to strategize the best way to steal a sip of Fizzy Lifting Drink or get an Everlasting Gobstopper from old Slugworth. The winner gets a life-changing prize that’s presumably better than a trip in the glass elevator but less responsibility than owning a chocolate factory. Presumably, the immoral losers will be drowned in a tube of chocolate, fed experimental products that cause discoloration and swelling, or evaporated into millions of tiny bits and fed into some sort of telecommunication device. Really grim stuff that only gets worse.

The real centerpiece of the show is Netflix digging up Willy Wonka star Gene Wilder’s vocal cords for the series narrator, giving Wilder’s warmly menacing tones the cadence of a text-to-speech program. While the press release from Netflix doesn’t mention AI, presumably because people aren’t wild about the tech, Deadline reports that Netflix worked with ElevenLabs, which is hard at work recreating Stan Lee’s voice, to develop its simulacrum. The faux Wilder sounds unconvincing and lacks whatever allure the actor brought to the role, e.g., his humanity, but we should note that the streamer did receive the blessing of the Wilder estate. “More than five decades after Gene brought Willy Wonka to life, people of all ages and backgrounds around the world continue to find joy, laughter and inspiration in his performance,” said Karen B. Wilder, Gene Wilder’s wife, on behalf of the Gene Wilder Estate, evoking Michael Caine’s comments on the quality of Jaws 4. “Gene had a remarkable ability to bring humor, wonder and heart into people’s lives, and that connection has endured for generations. We are delighted that Wonka’s The Golden Ticket celebrates the warmth and imagination that he brought to the role, introducing that magic to a new generation while honoring the fans who have cherished it for decades.”