This week, the world had a collective freakout over “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an occasion in Glasgow, Scotland that led to tears. Organizers used AI-generated advertisements that promised $45 Wonka wonderland, however when mother and father and youngsters arrived, they discovered a barren, filthy warehouse. A number of actors involved with the production came forward to share horror tales, together with one girl who stated she performed a sinister character known as “The Unknown.” However now, web sleuths uncovered a darker reality: this would-be Unknown was a faux.
After the story broke, an actor named Paul Connell, who was employed to play Willy Wonka on the occasion, posted a collection of viral movies about his expertise. Among the many extra salacious particulars, he described a subplot about The Unknown, a dastardly rival chocolate maker.
“There’s a man who lives right here. His title will not be recognized, so we name him the Unknown,” Connell stated, reciting a line from the present “The Unknown is an evil chocolate maker who lives within the wall,” In a video shared by an attendee, the Unknown emerges from behind a mirror, wearing black and carrying a sinister masks immediate terrified reactions from youngsters.
(Gizmodo obtained a duplicate of the unhinged AI-generated script from Willy’s Chocolate Expertise. Read it here.)
The web latched onto movies of the Unknown for instance of simply how outlandish and unusual the entire affair turned out to be. Days later, rumors swirled that the actress who performed The Unknown was getting ready to return ahead. Then, on Thursday, Manchester-based comic Jain Edwards posted a video.
“As a few of , I used to be the actor who was employed to play The Unknown within the Willy Wonka Glasgow Expertise,” Edwards stated within the video. “It was type of humorous as a result of simply earlier than the doorways opened, I turned to the man who play Willy Wonka, and I used to be like—I took my masks off—and I used to be like, ‘Mate, what do us actors get ourselves into?’”
Edwards paused. “I believe I appeared cool,” she stated, pantomiming the hand gestures seen in movies of The Unknown. “I introduced that masks from dwelling.”
Some commenters questioned her story from the soar, however as a complete, the response on social media took Edwards at face worth, and a number of other on-line shops printed articles about her video. However then customers on X/Twitter began digging into her account. Edwards didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On the day of the Wonka fiasco, February twenty fourth, Edwards posted a photo captioned “Leicester,” a metropolis in England greater than 300 miles away. The web smelled a rat. Customers began calling Edwards out within the feedback of her Unknown video, however she defended her story. “To the folks making an attempt to reveal me, wow. the appropriate phrases are unknown to me proper now,” Edwards wrote on X. “Going to console myself with my favourite childhood previous time: consuming a single jelly bean.” (Kids who attended have been reportedly given precisely one jelly bean.)
Quickly after, X added a Group Notice to Edwards’s video about enjoying the Unknown, a function which lets customers add context to misinformation. One YouTuber promised a video essay with authentic analysis exposing the ruse.
By Friday, Edwards admitted her video was a hoax, claiming she’d turned down radio interviews on the topic. “I received’t be following by with my evil plan as a result of I’ve heard that the one that is allegedly the true Unknown goes to disclose herself,” Edwards tweeted. “I don’t wish to both take her spot or put any jokes on the market that may come again on her. Hope that’s okay and sorry to waste your time!”
On reflection, Edwards’ story was clearly meant to be understood as a prank, and a hilarious one at that. “Kids have been crying, not denying that,” Edwards stated in her authentic video about The Unknown. “However should you may see into their eyes like I may, you’ll have seen that they have been understanding this as fairly a robust piece of theater. You already know, in addition to being traumatized.”
On the identical time, the complete story of the Wonka occasion was so weird it’s simple to see how the hoax may need slipped previous some viewers’ radar. For now, the true id of The Unknown should keep unknown.