Wonka’s The Golden Ticket re-creates the late actor’s 1971 Willy Wonka voice with ElevenLabs, with the Wilder estate’s blessing — and some backlash.
2026-06-30 · by Moe Ameen
Netflix is using AI to bring back Gene Wilder's voice for an unscripted competition series, Wonka's The Golden Ticket, inspired by the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The voice — Wilder died in 2016 — was re-created with the AI audio company ElevenLabs, working with Wilder's estate. Netflix and producer Eureka Productions revealed the project in late June 2026, alongside a first trailer.
The format pairs 12 "golden ticket" winners, each with a partner of their choice, in a run of challenges inspired by the film and source novel. Reporting describes a multi-part series premiering globally on September 23, 2026, with a two-part finale on September 30. Rusty Goffe, who played an Oompa Loompa in the 1971 film, appears in the production.
Wilder's widow, Karen B. Wilder, approved the use on behalf of the family estate and said the family is "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." The announcement also drew criticism online, with some arguing that re-creating a late actor's performance with AI is a way to draw attention and avoid casting a living performer; some viewers called the synthetic voice in the trailer eerie.
The headline-grabbing part of this story — cloning a real, late actor — needs an estate, a rights deal, and a studio. The usable part for a creator is the underlying capability: a consistent, synthetic voice you control, attached to a consistent on-screen identity. That is what Kompozy is built around, minus the licensing minefield. Its AI Influencer persona pool gives you a recurring face and voice that stays the same across every video, and Persona Shorts and Persona HeyGen generate talking-head and multi-scene avatar video with native voice straight from a Persona Brief — your consented identity, not someone else's.
So the move on this news is to talk about it, on brand, fast. Drop your take on AI voice in media into Kompozy as a source, and the engine fans it into a blog post, a carousel explainer, short captioned clips, and platform-native text posts, then schedules and publishes across all nine connected platforms. You can voice the video commentary with your own persona avatar instead of a generic stock read, keep the look and voice identical from clip to clip, and ship a week of coverage while the story is still hot — no rights clearance, no studio, no waiting.
Wonka's The Golden Ticket, a Netflix unscripted competition series inspired by the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The late actor's voice was re-created with the AI audio company ElevenLabs.
Yes. The recreation was done with the Wilder estate, and his widow Karen B. Wilder said on the family's behalf that they are "delighted" the series celebrates the warmth and imagination he brought to the role.
Reporting around the late-June 2026 announcement points to a global premiere on September 23, 2026, with a two-part finale on September 30, 2026. Confirm the exact schedule on Netflix as the date approaches.
Not without their rights. Netflix cleared the use with Gene Wilder's estate; cloning a real person without consent risks legal and reputational fallout. A safer route is a consented persona voice you own — Kompozy generates avatar video with a consistent persona voice and face you control, then publishes it across nine platforms.