Wonka Director Paul King Is Already Working On Ideas For A Chocolatey Sequel

During the press tour leading up to the big screen release of “Wonka,” both Paul King and Timothée Chalamet referred to the movie as a companion piece to the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. What exactly does that mean? Does Chalamet’s version of Wonka become the version that Gene Wilder played in that movie? King explained a little more clearly:

“I think there are some differences between the Gene Wilder ‘Willy Wonka’ movie and the book, but not very many. It’s obviously an adaptation that Dahl was close to, even though he had a few issues with it. I think because that was my formative thing, I kinda felt there’s something canonical about that. There are choices they made, and I didn’t want our movie to spoil that movie for generations, I suppose, because it’s such an enduring classic. So I felt it would be great if our movie could work as a companion piece, and then ultimately, 20 or 30 years down the line, when the Timothée Chalamet Wonka has grown up, he’s closer in tone to Gene Wilder. I don’t think either of us was interested in doing an impersonation or something that was exactly that, but something that sat within that universe of Willy Wonka.”

So while it’s not a direct prequel, they wanted the younger Wonka to feel like he could eventually become Gene Wilder’s version of Wonka, if only for the sake of familiarity. After all, it’s an origin story for a character millions are familiar with, so we have some idea of where this is headed, even if Chalamet’s take ends up going in some different directions. But it’s going to take some time to get to the Wonka we all know.