Timothée Chalamet is reveling in a real-life world of Fizzy Lifting Drinks and Everlasting Gobstoppers. The titular star of Warner Bros. upcomingWonkawas in Los Angeles for the film’s U.S. debut, and the actor said he was enjoying himself at what he proclaimed to be his “first big LA premiere… ever.” And when asked if he’d return for a sequel, Chalamet toldEntertainment Tonight:
Sure, if there was a story to be told.
Gene Wilder had just turned 38 years old when the original filmWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factoryopened in theaters during the summer of 1971. So, going strictly by the numbers, and considering Chalamet is only 27 years old, there’s a over a decade of tasty tales to tell before Mr. Wonka ends up passing off his famous candy palace into the worthy hands of young Charlie Bucket.
Wonkaserves as a prequel to Wilder’s first and only go-round as the chocolate confectioner, which is based on the children’s book written by Roald Dahl,Charlie and the Chocolate Factory(1964). Dahl was first inspired to pen the tale when he and some of his classmates at boarding school were invited to try out a variety of chocolate bars being made at a Cadbury chocolate factory.
Related:Willy Wonka’s Greatest Quotes, Ranked
Wonka’s Chocolatey Beginnings
Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) gains friends and powerful enemies while trying to achieve his chocolatier dreams.
Today,Timothée Chalametis the latest actor to inhabit the on-screen persona of Mr. Willy Wonka. But it was another creative who gave birth to what has become a nearly 60-year-long phenomenon. 35 years afterRoald Dahlvisited that chocolate factory, during his boarding school days, the author publishedCharlie and the Chocolate Factoryin 1964. Since its inception,Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryhas sold 20 million copies around the globe and in 55 different languages. But the late Mr. Dahl never lost sight of what first inspired him to write about Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka. Dahl said in a speech (perBiography):
“It was then I realized that inside this great Cadbury’s chocolate factory there must be an inventing room, a secret place where fully-grown men and women in white overalls spent all their time playing around with sticky boiling messes, sugar and chocs, and mixing them up and trying to invent something new and fantastic.
I would rush out into the corridor, clutching my new invention and go bursting straight into the office of the great Mr. Cadbury himself […] I used to lie in bed at night at that boarding school, dreaming up more and more fantastic successes that I had with Mr. Cadbury in his factory.”
While the latest actor to take upthe candy making mantle of Willy Wonka, Timothée Chalamet, might be interested in starring in sequels to the upcoming Warner Bros. film, it will ultimately come down to how much money the highly anticipated prequel can make. At the time of this writing,Wonkais forecast to make around $75 million globally during its opening weekend.
