It’s easy to grow weary of the IP merry-go-round. Every story you’ve ever cared about seems to get constantly diluted via sequels, threequels, prequels, reboots, live-action remakes and TV series. The pipeline churns, the algorithm demands familiarity, and somewhere along the way the original spark gets buried under franchise obligations and box office hedging. So when Netflix announced a new animated movie of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, my heart sank.
But then a little voice reminded me of something. Personally it was only with the fifth Hunger Games movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, that I felt Hollywood had truly captured the spirit of the Suzanne Collins books. Maybe then, I reasoned, I should keep my mind open about this latest reinvention of Roald Dahl’s classic tale.
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1. It’s being made by SonyÂ
Firstly, it comes from Sony Pictures Imageworks: the comany behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which redefined what CG animation could look like. It also made The Mitchells vs. the Machines, which found genuine emotional depth inside a story about family dysfunction and robot apocalypse. And of course, it made KPop Demon Hunters, the most-watched Netflix film of all time, and the kind of project people in our industry stop and study.
Can Sony repeat the critical and commercial success of KPop Demon Hunters will its new Wonka movie? (Image credit: Sony Pictures Imageworks)
All of which suggests this isn’t a cynical brand exercise, but a bold creative bet. Backed by a studio that consistently makes animation that’s visually distinctive, emotionally resonant and culturally current.
2. It’s a totally new story
Secondly, Netflix isn’t retreading the original plot. In fact, the premise sounds pretty inventive. Willy Wonka has spent years in prison for turning a child into a blueberry. On release, he returns to his factory, only to find himself up against teenager Charlie Paley, who, facing eviction with his friends, plots to break in and steal a priceless Wonka Bar.
It’s a new story that uses the existing world as a launchpad rather than a crutch. And the shift to modern-day London will hopefully give it the kind of grounded energy that – like with KPop Demon Hunters – can anchor the fantastical elements appropriately.
3. The first still is luring me in
Thirdly, Netflix has to date shared just one image, shown above – but to my eye, it looks fantastic. A lone figure, lollipop in hand, stands on a rooftop looking out over an unmistakably real London skyline, the Gherkin clearly visible among the towers. Planted in the middle distance is the Wonka factory, its chimneys pumping vivid rainbow smoke into the clouds, a neon sign glowing against a stained-glass facade wrapped in candy-cane poles.
In one frame, then, you get the whole tonal promise of the film. The ordinary world and the fantastical one sitting side by side, with the tension between them doing exactly what good visual storytelling should.
The brief for any successful IP expansion is, of course, almost impossibly difficult. Remain true to the spirit, imagine something new. But who knows, maybe they’ll pull it off? Either way, Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory arrives on Netflix in 2027 and I’ll certainly be watching.
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