If you’re ready for a world of pure imagination, look no further than “Wonka’s The Golden Ticket” on Netflix. The cutthroat reality competition show wonderfully recreates the Chocolate Factory from the original 1971 movie, complete with Oompa-Loompas, everlasting gobstoppers, edible wallpaper and even some real-life magic.
In order to truly test the dozen pairs of contestants (who notably compete as individuals), the streamer enlisted Australian magician Adam Mada as a consultant to craft practical magic and real illusions for select challenges and eliminations. As seen in Wednesday’s premiere, some of the tour guests even disappear right in front of their loved one’s eyes!
“There were effectively three audiences: There were the people themselves that were going to vanish; they went down in pairs, so there was their contestant colleague who was on the other side of them; and then there’s the camera audience as well,” he told TheWrap. “And to Netflix’s credit, what was absolutely brilliant about this production is that they wanted everything to feel authentic and real. They wanted the whole experience to be in-camera effects, whereas a lot of this stuff could have been achieved with special effects and camera cuts.”
“They originally reached out and said, ‘Look, is it even possible to create these illusions and primarily make people disappear that are unaware that they’re about to disappear? That was the initial pitch, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting challenge,’” Mada continued. “But the real challenge for me, and that room was incredibly challenging, we had to make the spectators vanish without a trace, and it was really important that their colleague, who was sat directly opposite them, had no idea where they went and that they themselves had no idea where they went. That’s something that’s not usually done on any production, so that was really exciting to test and build.”
As the series shot in Australia, Mada, set designer Chris Batson and their team built out an entire replica of the set in Sydney in order to test out their magic acts — since unwitting participants could only really be tricked once.
“I made it really clear to Netflix and the whole team that we need a whole range of testers, because once they go through it, we can’t repeat with the same testers because we’ve got to get authentic reactions,” he shared. “Once you’ve got that surprise from the magic, you can’t really fake it, so all of those reactions are absolutely genuine.”
It’s also worth noting that the reality show does use AI to recreate Gene Wilder’s voice for narration, with the approval of his estate: “To have that blessing from his widow that this was OK to do was just fantastic, and you just hope that somewhere he’s looking down on this project and will guide us through,” co-showrunner Alison Holloway previously revealed.
Outside of the pilot episode, Mada utilized his sleight-of-hand skills on a number of games and set pieces, including the top hats confessional booth, the WonkaVision 2.0 transportation screen and the Bubble Jeopardy elimination.
“That out of the entire series was the hardest thing to create, actually. We only had one shot. This is not like a drama show, it’s not like we could just cut, go back and redo it again,” he explained. “We had all of the rest of the fellow contestants watching when that effect happened, so it was filmed as live, which was quite stressful, but we pulled it off and it looks amazing.”
“WonkaVision was really interesting to design and build because it was such a specific esthetic, a completely white set, and it was just visually absolutely striking. Also, being a bright white set, it’s almost the opposite to a magician stage,” Mada noted. “It’s very difficult to hide things. There was a lot going on in that room, it was a very big room and a very, very, very complex build. We had up to nine people at any given point vanishing and being transported into the television set.”
Plus, the longtime magician even employed his protégé Ash to pull off some magic tricks as part of the Oompa-Loompa cast.
“With the objects from the screen, we came up with about four different pitches and one of them was just the elegance of having the Oompa-Loompa come and take the object directly out of the screen. I think it looks absolutely marvelous … It was one of the illusions that changed dramatically right up until shoot time,” he added. “I find that just demonstrating how it might work with an actual model or an actual demonstration just communicates the idea to everyone.”
And as a father of two who grew up watching the movie, Mada is particularly excited to share his work with his friends and family.
“Like every little kid, I love Wonka. With my connection being a magician, I find that he is this whimsical magician character. He’s somebody who inspires children. There’s a little bit of whimsy, but there’s also this sort of naughty playfulness and almost dangerousness with him, which I like as well. He’s a character who you never really understand how he’s doing it all, and there’s always a surprise around the next corner,” he said. “We’re having a screening party here at my house, all the neighborhood kids coming over. I think that inter-generational wonder is just fabulous and, you know, magic. It appeals to all demographics — kids, grandparents, everyone in between. We all get to eat chocolate and enjoy.”
So what’s in store for Wonka’s inevitable second tour, in addition to another lifetime supply of money?
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. Now we know that we can actually do this and we can safely make magic with them. We just see firsthand how effective it is, even with the crew watching on,” Mada concluded. “It was just amazing for everyone, we’ve kind of got that trust within the company. I just can’t wait to go bigger and better and really explore some crazy things.”
The first seven episodes of “Wonka’s The Golden Ticket” are now available to stream on Netflix, with the final two episodes out next Wednesday.
