Wonka Netflix show faces backlash for AI-generated Gene Wilder voice

A close up of the actor Gene Wilder in character as Willy Wonka. He is wearing a large top hat and a bow tie and white shirt, and purple jacket.

Image source, Silver Screen Collection via Getty ImagesByLaura CressTechnology reporter

Published59 minutes ago

Netflix says it will use AI, external to recreate the voice of the late Gene Wilder in a new reality TV series set in the world of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Wonka's The Golden Ticket will feature an AI-generated version of Wilder, who played the eccentric chocolatier in the 1971 film.

The actor appears with the consent of his estate following his death in 2016, with the voice replicated by AI audio firm ElevenLabs.

While Wilder's wife Karen B. Wilder said she was "delighted" the series "celebrates the imagination" he brought to the role, some fans questioned the decision, describing it as "disrespectful, external" and "a plastic substitute, external".

"In the end, it still sounds like every robotic AI voice you have heard," said one less-than-impressed commenter, external on social media.

Others jokingly drew comparisons to the disastrous "Willy's Chocolate Experience" event in Glasgow in 2024, which went viral for dramatically failing to deliver on its promises.

"Perhaps the Wonka experience was better than this (not that it's saying much)," one posted, external, alongside a drab picture of the event.

Netflix said Wonka's Golden Ticket would attempt to recreate - at least in look and feel - the story of Roald Dahl's classic children's book, with contestants taking part in "a series of Wonka's temptations and challenges" for a final prize.

But the announcement follows a number of other attempts to bring back the voices of former entertainment stars using AI.

In October 2024, Sir Michael Parkinson's son defended the use of AI to recreate the voice of the late chat show host for a new interview podcast series.

Jocelyn Burnham, who specialises in how AI is used in arts and culture, said it appeared studios were now "testing the waters" for what audiences might accept when it came to AI recreations.

She cited Disney's digital recreation of James Earl Jones's voice as Darth Vader in the 2022 TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi as evidence that audiences are not "automatically hostile" to all uses of AI in screen performances.

But she added while there was no "settled set of industry norms" around where audiences draw the line, the more loved the voice or character is "the more scrutiny the resulting product is likely to face".