Posted in: Comics, Conventions, Cosplay, Current News, Events, Games, Movies, Pop Culture, TV | Tagged: london comic con, The Unknown, Willy Wonka
There is already cosplay of The Unknown from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow, at today’s London Comic Con (Spring)
Willy’s Chocolate Experience was an unlicensed “lookalike” event unofficially based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Willy Wonka movies that made worldwide headlines after its opening in Glasgow, Scotland. Especially the “surprise” character known as… The Unknown.
Well, it seems that The Unknown escaped the Glasgow baying mob and heading down south, turning up today at the London Comic Con (Spring) at London Olympia. That’s fast for any cosplay. This was the work of cosplayer Archie’s Science Lab, who was surprised that so many people knew who the character was meant to be was… that’s the power of TikTok.
Willy’s Chocolate Experience was promoted as an immersive and interactive family experience, with AI illustration promising “stunning and intricately designed settings inspired by Roald Dahl’s timeless tale” and “an array of delectable treats scattered throughout the experience”. Instead, hundreds of attendees discovered it was in a dank Glasgow warehouse, with a small bouncy castle, backdrop images pinned to walls, plastic props left on bare concrete floors and meagre sweet allocation for the kids – one jelly bean and a quarter of a cup of Tesco lemonade – as well as uninspired character actors for their £35 ticket. Some were so upset that they called the police.
Actors were hired to play “Willy McDuff”, based on Willy Wonka, and one of them, Paul Connell, took to TikTok to explain what had happened from his perspective; actors were given a day to learn fifteen pages of AI-generated script. From those videos, we learned of a new character, an evil magic chocolate maker whose name is unknown, “so we call him The Unknown”, who lives inside the walls—played by an actress wearing a silver mask, a black cloak with thick black hair, who appeared from behind a large rectangular mirror and brought some children to tears. Connell says that he was scripted to defeat The Unknown using a vacuum cleaner but that no such prop was provided, and he had to improvise.
While the actress hired to play The Unknown also took to TikTok, a 16-year-old teenager called Felicia on her first acting job. “When I first read the script, I did not like it… As most of you guys know, I am 16, and it was my first ever paid acting job. I was quite nervous, but the actors were so lovely, and they took me under their wing.” Originally asked to play Wonka, she was recast as The Unknown on the day of the show. “So on the day of the actual event, we just got told to patch the script and improvise it, and the only direction I got given was to act creepy. So I tried to imagine what a man living in the walls should be like… Some people loved it; some people hated it, and some were left traumatised. Some people had no clue what was going on – including myself.”
After the first three 45-minute performances, the cast was told to abandon the script and just let guests walk through the venue, which took around two minutes and meant that The Unknown was now “scaring children for no reason”. After lunch, they were told the event had been cancelled so they went down the pub together. Returning later, there was a mob of angry parents, two police vans and two squad cars dealing with the incident.
Karen Gillan stated on Twitter that she would be interested in acting in a movie based on the story of the event…
Here’s a smattering of other cosplay at the show today…
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