When the internet spent the better part of a week in February roasting a Willy Wonka-themed family event in Glasgow gone wrong, there was a lot to laugh about: the mostly undecorated warehouse venue, the AI -generated advertising, the lack of chocolate, and, of course, the sad Oompa Loompa . The local actors hired to improvise based off a garbled script (also written by AI) wound up dishing on the disaster in interviews, and some have since leveraged their viral fame: that Oompa Loompa (real name Kristy Paterson) is selling Cameo greetings , for example. But now it’s time for the most mysterious character of the piece to shine.
That’s right: the performer who brought “The Unknown” to life is taking her talents to the London Dungeon, a haunted house tourist attraction where she’ll be scaring those who paid for the pleasure. In case you need a refresher: The Unknown was meant to be the villain of “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an evil chocolate-maker who lived in the walls of Wonka’s candy factory and wanted to steal one of his confectionary inventions. Made up by an AI chatbot and surely not based on any detail of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or its film adaptations, the masked, cloaked figure became a symbol of the event’s sheer absurdity.
It helped that the person emerging from behind a mirror to menace the kiddos really committed to the bit. The Unknown proved so popular, in fact, spawning memes and fan art, that immersive theater professionals too.
