What I Want To See in the Wonka Prequel

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a childhood favorite book and movie growing up. It was even the theme of my ninth birthday party! The timeless tale remains a generational classic, and in 2023 we’ll get the backstory of the famous chocolatier. Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet as the title character, is set to dive deep into the early years of Wonka. A musical expansion of his adventures before he opened the most famous chocolate factory. Those adventures are briefly mentioned in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book. So, last week I sat down for a couple of hours and reread the entire thing with my own annotations.

The Roald Dahl franchise consists of two books, two movies, a TBA tv series, three stage shows, a video game, and a ride. None of those give us a peek into the looking glass of Wonka’s past. Willy Wonka is a very complex character. People interpret book characters differently, but it’s no secret that the original book characters signified something deeper than surface level. To the naked eye, Wonka is an eccentric businessman with a penchant for imagination. In reality, he’s a narcissistic recluse who should definitely care more about the possibility of children dying on his watch. As readers and viewers, we are expected to take that at face value. Why does he hide from the public? Why does he care more about the Oompa-Loompa songs than why they’re singing them? 

From my reread, I used two color tabs. The green was to mark things I wanted to see explored in the prequel, and the pink was to mark things about Wonka’s somewhat quirky personality. 

The Oompa-Loompas

In the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, we got a little bit of the Oompa-Loompa backstory that Roald Dahl writes about in the book. Wonka travels to Loompaland, “a thick jungle infested by the most dangerous beasts in the entire world – hornswogglers and snozzwangers and those terrible wicked whangdoodles.” His time in Loompaland is short, but something that would be incredible to see is where precisely this hidden country is and how he manages to travel there. Does he meet certain people along the way? Does he discover a new inspiring ingredient?

The Spies

Another thing that the previous movies and book briefly mentioned was the spies that other candy makers sent to Wonka’s factory. Mr. Slugworth was probably the most notable, bribing children in the original film for the Everlasting Gobstopper recipe. Roald Dahl explains that Ficklegruber started making ice cream that never melted. Prodnose made gum that never lost flavor, and Slugworth made candy balloons that could blow up to enormous sizes. The path that led Wonka to his life as a chocolatier is simple, he started a shop on Cherry Street. Did these other candy makers set up shop on Cherry Street during Wonka’s early years? Expanding on characters like Ficklegruber, Prodnose, and Slugworth is something I’m interested in seeing, and whether they were friends or foes from the beginning.

The Insane Candies

In chapter 25, “The Great Glass Elevator,” Willy Wonka takes the kids into the glass elevator, and Charlie reads the buttons’ labels. Rock Candy Mine, Strawberry Juice Water Pistols, Exploding Candy for your Enemies, Luminous Lollies for eating in bed at night, etc. There are dozens of candies that went unexplored, and we have no idea how Wonka came up with them. Please give us a candy experimentation musical montage! 

His Early Home Life

We know from the 2005 film that Wonka’s father was a dentist and never allowed Willy to eat any candy. Depending on how far back Wonka plans to go, there’s a possibility we could get the broader story there. I’ve heard and read about the plethora of Wonka theories, and one of my favorites is that Snowpiercer is a direct sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I hope they keep things whimsical; it is a musical. It’s no secret that, as a character, Willy Wonka is a great one to peel back the layers with. I have a good feeling about this particular prequel, and I’m excited to see where they go with it. Please share your thoughts with us. Is there anything you’d like to see in this film that I didn’t mention?