Taika Waititi will direct films in the Willy Wonkaverse for Netflix

Several years ago, I bet few people had heard of Taika Waititi and now you can’t seem to stop hearing his name when it comes to Hollywood. The New Zealand filmmaker who first made a name for himself through off-beat dark comedies What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, broke into the big time when Marvel chose him to direct Thor: Ragnarok.

Not only has Waititi since gone on to win an Oscar for making a movie about an imaginary Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit, but he has also acted in and directed some episodes of The Mandalorian. Currently, Waititi is directing Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love and Thunder, acting in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad movie and if that wasn’t enough, he has now signed a deal to write and direct two new Roald Dahl series for Netflix. Talk about being productive. Most of us consider waking up on time to just be an accomplishment.

Netflix announced Waititi’s involvement in these new series via Twitter where it was revealed that the first series will be based on the characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the second project being a more original series focused on the Oompa-Loompas, the mysterious workers of Wonka’s chocolate factory. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is one of the most beloved works of author Roald Dahl and has been adapted twice for the big screen, first in 1971 starring Gene Wilder and again in 2005 starring Johnny Depp. Extending the storytelling to be a series opens up the opportunity for exploring these characters even further and is certainly an interesting idea for Netflix to pursue.

The reveal doesn’t indicate when these series will be developed, but given Waititi’s already packed schedule, it’s hard to image anything coming out in the near future. Mind you, given how productive the man has been of late, perhaps he has a secret clone running around and that is the reason why he is able to do so many projects all at the same time. Either way, Hollywood definitely has a crush on Waititi and I expect we will continue seeing a lot more of his work over the next few years.

Last Updated: March 6, 2020