Donald Glover would need to think about Willy Wonka role

12 June 2018

Donald Glover would need to "think about it on some level" if he were to be offered the role of Willy Wonka in the new adaptation of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.

Donald Glover

The 34-year-old actor was thought to be one of the contenders to portray the fictional character in the forthcoming prequel of the Roald Dahl classic novel, but he has admitted no one has approached him about the job and he doesn't know if he'd even accept if they did because there have been "a lot" of Willy Wonkas in the past.

Speaking to 'Entertainment Tonight', he said: "There's been a lot of Willy Wonkas, so I would have to think about it on some level. It's cool that people are thinking about me."

The hit novel has been adapted into a movie twice - most recently in 2005 with Tim Burton's take on the classic story starring Johnny Depp.

However, the most popular and most loved adaptation is Gene Wilder's imagining of the factory owner in the hit musical 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory'.

Glover explained: "It kind of terrified me as a child a little bit. It was a scary movie to me. I mean, I watched it a lot but I was kind of terrified by it. I mean, it's a classic."

But Glover isn't the only one being lined up for the film as Ryan Gosling is also said to be in the running, despite being older than Warner Bros. desired age for the role.

'Harry Potter' director David Heyman is set to helm the new production which is reportedly set to be a prequel with Simon Rich penning the script.

Heyman said previously: "It's not a remake. They've done two films, quite different. But it's possibly an origin story. We're just in the early stages of it, working with a writer called Simon Rich, which is wonderful. I'm a huge Roald Dahl fan. I've been trying to work on Dahl material for quite some time but they're all tied up. So when this was suggested, I didn't take a moment to pause and want to jump right in.

"It's challenging because you don't have Dahl, you don't have a Dahl book, and yet you have a Dahl character. But I think there's a lot in his character that suggests who he is and also where he might come from or what his childhood of his middle age might have been like. So we're exploring that. We're discussing it. We're in the very early stages and very excited about what lies ahead."