The trailer released August 26 gives the competition its clearest shape yet. Twelve Golden Ticket winners arrive with partners and move through a physical version of Wonka's factory, facing games built around temptation, judgment and endurance.

The series premieres September 23, followed by a two-part finale on September 30.

Wilder is present without being recast

Netflix is using a recreated version of Gene Wilder's voice as Willy Wonka. Wilder played the character in the 1971 film and died in 2016.

The production secured consent from the Gene Wilder Estate. Karen B. Wilder has publicly endorsed the decision, describing the project as a way of celebrating the warmth and imagination associated with his performance.

That makes this different from an unauthorized imitation, but it also makes the technology part of the show's creative premise. The performance is no longer limited to archival footage from a finished movie. A synthetic version of one of its most recognizable elements is being used to guide a new production.

The 1971 movie is doing a lot of work

Rusty Goffe also returns after appearing as an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The reality series is therefore drawing directly from both Dahl's book and the identity of that particular screen adaptation.

The competition itself takes the original Golden Ticket structure literally. Contestants enter the factory and face situations designed to test them physically, mentally and morally. Netflix describes the result as a high-stakes social experiment rather than a straightforward quiz or obstacle course.

Only one contestant will win the final prize. Netflix has called it life-changing without publicly specifying its exact value in its current overview.

A literary property has become a format

Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021 and has since moved through several kinds of adaptation. Matilda the Musical remained recognizably theatrical, Wes Anderson turned short stories into carefully controlled films, and The Twits became animation.

The Golden Ticket takes a stranger route. Instead of dramatizing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again, it extracts the rules of Dahl's story and applies them to real contestants.

The factory opens on Netflix on September 23.