Freddie Highmore decided to return to his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character in a new spoof, however, the legendary factory was looking less like a chocolate wonderland and more like the failed fan experience.
During the actor’s recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he jokingly debuted the trailer for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Part Two, which sees Charlie Bucket giving two children a tour of the candy factory that he got from Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka in the 2005 movie.
“Hello, children! My name is Charlie Bucket and welcome to my chocolate factory,” Highmore said as a greenscreen behind him fell down, revealing a sparsely decorated building that resembled the now-infamous Willy Wonka-themed immersive experience in the U.K. that reportedly left children in tears. “Pretty sweet, huh?” the actor added in the clip.
As Highmore continued the tour with the children, they eventually encountered an Oompa Loompa who offered them “yummy methamphetamine,” which referenced parents who compared the Glasgow fan attraction to a meth lab.
Later in the video, a woman wearing a black cloak and silver mask, whom the actor called the Unknown, jumped out and scared the kids. “I am relieved you see her, too,” Highmore whispered under his breath as he quickly shuffled the children away.
When one of the kids complained that the chocolate factory “doesn’t look like the pictures,” Highmore explained that he created the flyers using the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT — another reference to the failed fan event earlier this year, where event organizers apparently used AI to generate high-quality promotional images of the experience.
“Everything here is created by ChatGPT,” Highmore exclaimed before breaking out into what seemed to be his own AI-generated song. “Candy is good / Candy is mouth / sweet is fun / And we love to imagination!”
When the two children appeared disappointed in their chocolate factory experience, with one even calling it “sad,” Highmore admitted that business hadn’t been doing as well since Willy Wonka gave him the keys to the kingdom.
“I’m gonna level with you kids: The factory never really took off after Wonka gave it to me,” the actor said. “I was 10! I did my best, but I was way in over my head and considering all of that, I’d say, look at this place! I’ve done pretty darn swell.” Photos from the actual controversial U.K. immersive experience were then displayed on the screen.
In the end, when Highmore revealed that the children won his chocolate factory, they didn’t seem very amused, with one saying, “Let’s kill him,” as they attacked the actor with plastic prop candy canes.
The video concluded with a note that the movie was in “abandoned theaters everywhere.”
