Willy Wonka

fictional chocolatier from Roald Dahl's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and its related franchise

Willy Wonka is a fictional character who ran a chocolate factory from the story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His character originated from a book and his character has been in movies.

Original book

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In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Willy Wonka started a factory to make chocolate and became rich by selling it. So other candy-makers sent spies to steal his candy recipes. So Willy Wonka closed his factory and fired everyone. Ten years later he opened it again and started selling chocolate again. He started a contest where he put five golden tickets in five different chocolate bars and said that any kid who bought a chocolate bar with a golden ticket would get a free tour of the factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate. At the end of the book, it turns out that Willy Wonka secretly tested all five of the kids and all of them failed except for one kid named Charlie. So Willy Wonka tells Charlie that he's a lot older than Charlie thinks he is and wants Charlie to take over the factory when he dies. Charlie says yes.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

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In the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Willy Wonka takes Charlie and his family with him to Outer space and America and fights monsters.

1971 movie

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In the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka is played by Gene Wilder. He hires someone to pretend to be his enemy Slugworth and try to bribe all the kids to steal a new candy from Willy Wonka. Charlie Bucket takes the candy to give to Slugworth but then decides that it's wrong to do that, gives it back to Willy Wonka and apologizes. So Willy Wonka decides that he can trust Charlie to take over the factory when he dies.

2005 remake

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In the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka is played by Johnny Depp. The movie gives Willy Wonka an Origin story where he was the son of a dentist named Dr. Wilbur Wonka who never let him eat candy so Willy became a Chocolate-maker to rebel against him. Willy Wonka then tells Charlie Bucket to leave his family forever and live at Wonka's factory. Charlie says no even "for all the chocolate in the world". Charlie also finds Willy's father, Dr. Wilbur Wonka and gets them to get along with each other again.

2023 prequel

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In the prequel movie Wonka, Willy Wonka is played by Timothée Chalamet. It is an origin story for Willy Wonka that is different from the last one. In it, his mother died when he was a kid and he liked the chocolate she made for him, so he decided to become a chocolate maker, creating the best candy he could that everyone could afford but Slugworth and other rich chocolate makers called the Chocolate Cartel try to sabotage him.