What To Know
- Netflix is bringing Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to life for a lucky few contestants.
- Here, the showrunners break down what’s ahead in the new reality competition series.
Good morning, starshine! To celebrate the 55th anniversary of 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Netflix is bringing Roald Dahl‘s iconic world of pure imagination to life once more with the streamer’s new game show Wonka’s The Golden Ticket.
Twelve lucky contestants who find a Golden Ticket can enter with a guest to a 40,000-square-foot recreation of Wonka’s factory. No detail was spared, down to the chocolate river, which took a year to develop from scratch.
“Who knew there were so many shades of milk chocolate?” jokes showrunner Alison Holloway when reflecting on the process.
But there’s no such thing as a free lunch — even if the lunch might be all candy. While contestants will be surrounded by so much candy that 10 out of 10 dentists would shudder, they’ll also be competing in challenges aimed at testing their character. Holloway and coshowrunner Emer Harkin tease two challenges viewers can expect: one room with lickable wallpaper and another with honeycomb. Just like in the movie, only one contestant will make it to the end and get a life-changing amount of money.
Netflix
Nostalgia served as the guiding star when creating The Golden Ticket.
“We wanted [the contestants] to experience the 1971 movie in 2026,” Holloway explains. “It was all built around nostalgia, but throwing it forward into the most crazy social experiment competition show for a new generation.”
“The truth is the movie really was a sort of reality competition in the ‘70s, and that test of character was ahead of its time,” adds Harkin. “To be able to craft something off that magnificent game was something we wanted to stay very true to and bring it into a modern-day setting.”
For another nod to the childhood classic, original Oompa Loompa actor Rusty Goffe reprises his role in the Netflix game show, guiding contestants through Wonka’s whimsical Wonderland.
“Rusty was so excited,” Holloway says. “He turned 21 on the set of the Gene Wilder movie, and they celebrated his birthday back then. He celebrated his 80th birthday on set with us this time around.” How sweet.
Wonka’s The Golden Ticket, Streaming September 23, Netflix
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