Taika Waititi Will Make Two Animated ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ Series

By Syakir Roslan  •  06 Mar 2020 in Pop Culture

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Taika Waititi, the brilliant mind behind movies such as ‘What We Do In The Shadows’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and the Oscar-winning ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is set to direct, produce and write two animated series based on Roald Dahl’s celebrated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books after finalising a deal with Netflix.

The first series will revolve around the characters and world of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in its entirety whereas the second will take a closer look at the Oompa-Loompas whom are the miniature-sized workers at Willy Wonka’s factory that occasionally break into song when necessary.

Netflix has been in the works to create a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series adaptation since 2018 after they gained the rights to various Roald Dahl stories. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Melissa Cobb, VP of kids and family content at Netflix had this to say regarding their choice to appoint Taika Waititi:

“I grew up reading Dahl stories and lived large parts of my young life in those magical worlds, so finding just the right creative partner to bring Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Oompa-Loompas to life in animation was a daunting task … until Taika walked into the room. Then it was really obvious. If Dahl had created a character of a filmmaker to adapt his work, I’m pretty sure he would have created Taika.”

Needless to say, this isn’t the first on-screen adaptation of the eccentric chocolateer and his wacky factory. Gene Wilder starred as Willy Wonka back in the classic 70’s movie while the latest adaptation was Tim Burton’s take back in ’05 featuring a notably pale-faced Johnny Depp as the maestro of candy.

However, the previous two films that were made deviated from the original plot of Roald Dahl’s book (the Gene Wilder one especially) so it’ll be interesting to see how this story will unfold as a series which would allow for greater storytelling and character development in comparison to an hour-plus-long movie. More importantly, Taika Waititi is at the helm of it all so I know I’ll be tuning in.

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