Even though “Wonka” is only just now hitting theaters, it seems destined to become a box office hit this holiday season. If all goes well, director Paul King would like to make a sequel. Speaking to Total Film, the filmmaker cited Dahl’s apparent interest in telling more stories with Willy Wonka, and King feels the same way:
“Dahl was definitely interested in taking Willy Wonka on. There’s drafts that didn’t really go anywhere, and there’s a short story. He didn’t really write sequels, but this was the one book where he clearly felt there was more in the tank there. There’s an awful lot more Wonka story that we have that we would like to tell. It’s not like ‘Dune: Part One,’ where you go, ‘This is what’s happening in Part Two.’ Hopefully it works exquisitely as a stand-alone movie. But I would definitely like to do more. And I’d like to spend more time in this world, and meet some more Oompa Loompas.”
There’s a sequel book called “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator,” but that story picks up after the events of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” with Charlie Bucket and his family still adventuring with Wonka. Believe it or not, that book takes Charlie and Wonka to space, includes Vernicious Knids as dangerous aliens, and it’s quite the departure from the original book. So it’s not likely that the sequel would take a cue from Dahl’s follow-up book, but it seems both King and Chalamet have an idea of what kind of stories they can tell.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, King confirmed that “Wonka” takes place 25 years before the story that we’ve seen unfold in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Responding to a red carpet question, King remarked, “It’s set 25 years before the factory — but like you said, there’s 25 years and plenty more things that happen to Willy Wonka.” So it’s safe to assume that it’s within those 25 years that the sequel to “Wonka” would be set, rather than jumping to a new adaptation of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
