Johnny Depp Successor: Timothée Chalamet Wins Spot Of The Next Willy Wonka
The Chocolate Factory saga continues as multiple news outlets revealed this week the successor of Johnny Depp and Gene Wilder.
In reports shared by Deadline and Variety, they confirmed that Timothée Chalamet will be the next star to play Willy Wonka. The upcoming origin-story film will be the prequel to Roald Dahl's 1964 book "Charlie and the Chocolate" factory.
Chalamet will work with several award-winning teams, including David Heyman as the producer and Simon Rich as the writer. Paul King will be the showrunner of the most-awaited installment.
Currently, there are no concrete details about the film yet. However, both news outlets revealed that the film, titled "Wonka," will be released on March 17, 2023.
They also added that the 25-year-old actor will adapt Wilder's character who is fond of singing and dancing in the film. For what it's worth, the first Willy Wonka created the musical adaptation in 1971.
"Wonka" Has Been Long-Time Coming
Before this update, the 59-year-old director revealed that the project would serve as the prequel.
In 2018, he told Collider that they will set it before the events of Dahl's book and two movie adaptations.
Timothée Chalamet will be the third actor to portray the character following Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.
"It's a prequel, it's not a sequel. What makes Willy - when we find him at the chocolate factory doing the golden ticket, where is he before that? What leads him to that place where he's locked himself away? ... It's, 'How does he get there?' So we're playing around with that," he detailed.
Donald Glover and Ryan Gosling's names were once included on the potential actors' list. There was also an instance where the team considered creating a spin-off with a woman to play the fictional chocolatier's role.
Winona Ryder, who has been working with Depp, expressed her excitement toward seeing Chalamet play the role.
"I loved the idea of getting to work with Timothée, who I'm such a fan of," she said. "Timothée is really the perfect person to embody that character."
Willy Wonka's character never really got out of the popularity list. In fact, the rise of TikTok caused a user Duke Depp to reintroduce the character again.
Last year, the Utah-based TikTok user immediately gained over 3.6 million followers after he gave life and paid homage to Tim Burton's character.
