Netflix's new reality competition Wonka's The Golden Ticket opens with a familiar sound, the lilting, slightly unhinged cadence of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka. Wilder died in 2016. The voice contestants hear was produced by ElevenLabs, the AI audio company, with approval from Wilder's estate.
That approval is what makes this case different from most AI voice controversies as the debate over recreating deceased performers has centered on consent, on who speaks for someone who can no longer speak for themselves. Here, the people closest to Wilder made an affirmative choice, which shifts the argument without resolving it.
Wilder's estate signed off on the ElevenLabs recreation, though the terms remain undisclosed. Whether the agreement covers this production exclusively, what content controls were attached, and what compensation was involved would determine what precedent the deal sets.
ElevenLabs served as the production partner. The company has built its business on high-fidelity voice synthesis, and tying a high-profile deployment to one of cinema's most recognizable character actors demonstrates that capability to a wide audience.
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The choice of Wilder's voice was not arbitrary. His Wonka is among the most stylistically distinctive vocal performances in American film, from the pauses to the register shifts to the way warmth and menace coexist in the same sentence. Replicating a voice with those qualities is a harder test than replicating a more neutral speaker. Netflix has not released any statement characterizing the fidelity of the recreation or the production process, leaving the result to audience reception.
The use of AI for deceased actors continues to generate debate among fans and industry professionals. Performers' unions have spent the past several years negotiating protections against AI voice and likeness replication for living actors. The Wilder case involves a deceased performer, which places it outside most of those contractual frameworks. An estate can grant permission, but a union contract cannot protect someone posthumously in the same way.
NBC News reported Wonka's The Golden Ticket* on June 30, 2026, placing its release in mid-2026. How audiences and industry observers respond to the Wilder recreation will likely inform whether Netflix or its competitors pursue similar arrangements for future productions.