Netflix's AI-recreated Gene Wilder voice divides fans ahead of Wonka show

[Tia_75]

Netflix's upcoming reality competition series Wonka's The Golden Ticket, premiering September 23rd, has sparked ongoing debate over its use of AI to recreate the voice of the late Gene Wilder, who died in 2016 and originated the role of Willy Wonka in the 1971 film. Netflix partnered with AI audio company ElevenLabs to recreate Wilder's voice with permission from his wife Karen and his estate, who said Gene had a remarkable ability to bring humor, wonder and heart into people's lives, and that connection has endured for generations

The series follows 12 Golden Ticket winners and their partners competing through games and challenges inside a recreation of the famous chocolate factory, produced in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company and featuring Rusty Goffe reprising his original Oompa Loompa role from the 1971 film. ElevenLabs has separately recreated the voices of other deceased performers including Carrie Fisher, Harold Ramis, Paul Walker, Judy Garland and Burt Reynolds, part of a broader and increasingly common trend of posthumous AI voice recreation across entertainment

Reaction to the trailer has been genuinely mixed, with some viewers praising the show's elaborate sets and scale while others have called the AI voice disrespectful, unsettling and insulting, with some noting the recreation sounds closer to Johnny Depp's take on the character than Wilder's own distinctive performance. The controversy has reignited broader debate about posthumous AI recreation of performers who never had the chance to consent to the technology themselves while alive. Curious what people think about estate approved AI voice recreation specifically, does family consent genuinely settle the ethical question, or does it just shift who gets to make that call

Another star falls victim to the AI takeover: Fans blast Netflix for 'ruining one of their favourite movies' as Gene Wilder's voice is resurrected for new Willy Wonka series | Daily Mail Onlinewww.dailymail.com

[Callum_33]

Estate approval settles the legal question cleanly enough, but it doesn't necessarily settle the emotional one for longtime fans, hearing a beloved late performer's voice again can feel jarring regardless of who signed off on it

[Matt95]

Worth asking what happens once this technology gets meaningfully better at genuinely capturing a specific performer's actual essence rather than just their vocal patterns, today's uncanny valley reaction might not hold in just a few years

[Dragon49]

Fan reactions will likely soften as this technology only gets more convincing from here, today's uncanny valley response is very likely a temporary phase rather than a permanent ceiling on how this gets received

[Brittle Olivia]

Karen Wilder's public statement supporting this feels genuine rather than purely transactional, worth remembering she presumably knew her husband's voice and legacy better than any outside critic reacting to a two minute trailer

[Anvil79]

Rusty Goffe returning as an actual living Oompa Loompa from the original film alongside an AI recreated Wilder creates a genuinely strange contrast, one performer bringing real lived continuity, the other entirely synthetic

[HiggsField10]

The disgraceful and disrespectful reactions online feel like the loudest voices in the conversation, but curious how representative that vocal minority actually is of how the broader viewing audience will feel once they actually watch the full show

[MachineSaint69]

Some reactions noting the AI voice sounds more like Johnny Depp's version than Wilder's own actually undercuts the whole pitch here, if the recreation doesn't even convincingly capture what made the original performance so specifically beloved

[Memory Jamie]

This fits into a much broader and honestly inevitable trend now, ElevenLabs recreating Fisher, Ramis, Walker, Garland and Reynolds shows this isn't a one-off experiment, it's becoming a genuine standard industry practice