By this time next month, the two highest-grossing movies of 2024 will both star Timothée Chalamet. That’s a little weird, right? Wonka currently leads the domestic box office for 2024 (even though it came out in 2023), while Dune: Part Two, which releases on March 1, is expected to make $60 million-$80 million in its opening weekend. That’s not to mention the hundreds of millions more it’ll earn in popcorn bucket sales.
But back to Wonka. Director Paul King was recently asked by Comic Book whether the Willy Wonka origin story (it’s amazing this movie is as fun as it is considering, again, it’s a Willy Wonka origin story) will get a sequel.
“It’s definitely something we’re thinking about. One of the things I love most about David Heyman, my producer, is that he has made so many great movies that he doesn’t feel the pressure to just make a movie because it can be made,” he said.
King brought up how there’s 50 years between Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Chalamet’s Wonka, so “we can wait a beat, and if we don’t come up with a story, this is a movie with a beginning, a middle, and end that works on its own and if we come up with something that we think can be exciting — certainly Oompa Loompas feel like there can be a plural Oompa Loompas. Of course there are some ideas sloshing around, but we don’t have a story yet, so we’ll see what happens.”
The last time King directed a sequel, it was Paddington 2. By that measure, Wonka 2 will be a disappointment unless it’s the greatest film of all-time.
(Via Comic Book)
