London Dungeon hires actor who played The Unknown in failed Willy Wonka experience

Viral photos of amateur actor Felicia, 16, showed her lurking behind a floor-length mirror to frighten children

The London Dungeon has hired the actor who played the mask-wearing character The Unknown in the failed Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience in Glasgow.

Last month, astonishing images of the Wonka experience gone wrong stunned millions of social media users, after the event that promised to have “delectable” chocolate fountains and “whimsical” Oompa-Loompas left children in tears and their parents furious.

Amateur actor Felicia, 16, played the evil rival chocolate maker to Willy Wonka during the immersive experience. Eerie video clips of The Unknown lurking behind a floor-length mirror quickly went viral online after the Wonka story became national news.

In one clip, one actor could be heard saying “Look! It’s The Unknown!” as children were heard crying in response.

Felicia will now put her experience of scaring Glasgow’s children to use at the London Dungeon.

In an announcement video, she said: “I’m a huge fan of The Dungeons across the UK. I’ve visited many times as a guest, and I can’t quite believe I now get to be the one who’s scaring the public. Who would have thought my wild Wonka experience would have led me to this!”

Felicia, 16, as The Unknown (Supplied)

“I’m hoping my recent scare experience will have set me up well for this role – and I cannot wait to meet and learn from the expert team at the London Dungeon as I’d love to be doing their job full time one day. London here I come!”

A London Dungeon spokesperson said: “Clearly Felicia is a natural when it comes to the art of the scare!

“It’s an honour to be joined by the acting talent behind the now cult character The Unknown – and we can’t wait to see what she’ll bring to our horribly scary historical figures. If you think the mysterious character of The Unknown was unnerving, you haven’t seen anything yet!”

The Willy Wonka experience setup (Stuart Sinclair/Facebook)

They continued: “While we can’t say there will be any mirrors involved in Felicia’s training and guest appearance this Easter, what we can promise is there won’t be an AI script or advert in sight. The team can’t wait to welcome her to their ranks. Forget the West End, big breaks come just across from West...minster!”

After attending the Willy Wonka immersive experience, angry parents who travelled up to two hours to get to the event and shelled out £35 for the “world of pure imagination” said they were met by fed-up actors struggling to recite scripts, sparsely placed IKEA furniture and low-resolution candyland posters pinned to walls.

Children were offered a couple of jelly babies along with a quarter glass of Barr’s limeade.

After the uproar from parents, Willy’s Chocolate Experience organiser Billy Coull apologised for his “vision of the artistic rendition of a well-known book that didn’t come to fruition” and offered 850 people their money back before closing the Glasgow experience.

Channel 5 has since announced that it has commissioned a one-off documentary chronicling the disaster behind the failed event. It will be releasing Willy Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain later this month.