# Netflix Partners With ElevenLabs to Recreate Gene Wilder's Voice for AI Series

> Netflix has partnered with ElevenLabs to recreate the voice of the late Gene Wilder for a new Willy Wonka themed reality competition series. The synthetic voice is being built with permission from Wilder's estate, a detail that matters as much as the technology, and it will feature in original content rather than a re-release of old footage. For ElevenLabs, this is a marquee validation of its push to be the full audio stack for entertainment, spanning voice, dubbing, music, APIs and agents. For Netflix, it is a very public step toward using AI voice synthesis in mainstream programming rather than quiet back-office dubbing. The move sharpens a debate that is not going away. Recreating a beloved performer's voice, even with estate approval, tests where audiences draw the line between homage and imitation, and it hands streamers a tool that is powerful, cheap and unavoidably uncomfortable. Expect this Wonka experiment to become a reference point in every argument about AI and the dead.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: ElevenLabs · Published Monday, July 20, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Netflix has partnered with ElevenLabs to recreate the voice of the late Gene Wilder for a new Willy Wonka themed reality competition series. The synthetic voice is being built with permission from Wilder's estate, a detail that matters as much as the technology, and it will feature in original content rather than a re-release of old footage. For ElevenLabs, this is a marquee validation of its push to be the full audio stack for entertainment, spanning voice, dubbing, music, APIs and agents. For Netflix, it is a very public step toward using AI voice synthesis in mainstream programming rather than quiet back-office dubbing. The move sharpens a debate that is not going away. Recreating a beloved performer's voice, even with estate approval, tests where audiences draw the line between homage and imitation, and it hands streamers a tool that is powerful, cheap and unavoidably uncomfortable. Expect this Wonka experiment to become a reference point in every argument about AI and the dead.

## Source

[Read the full story at ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/blog)

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