Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Trivia

• Defictionalization: Wonka is actually an actual brand of candy that started in 1971 (after the first film adaptation). It is currently owned by Nestlé.
  • In fact, Quaker Oats gave a ton of money to the production and then changed the name of their upcoming candy line to Wonka, which is also the reason for the title change.
  • Most of the candy as well. Everlasting Gobstoppers don't last forever, sadly.
    • Ironically, for a candy company named after a chocolate factory, they don't make many chocolate products.
    • Also ironically, for a brand of candy made by a British company based on an Book from a British writer, they seem much more popular in America.
    • Their most notable original creation? Nerds.
    • Nestlé supplied all of the edible prop candy for the 2005 film, because they had bought the Wonka brand by then.
• What Could Have Been: The original concept for the story didn't even have any children in it! After that, there were multiple drafts, each with different numbers of children (anywhere from five up to thirty) with different personalities and fates (explained below). The general plot was different too: in an early draft the factory tours were a weekly event, Willy Wonka had a son called Freddie, and the story ended with Charlie getting his own chocolate shop.
  • Early concepts for children included Miranda Mary Piker, who was a school-obsessed swot; and Marvin Prune, who was a very conceited boy. Also -- and this is absolutely true -- Mike Teavee's original name was Herpes Trout.
  • The Oompa-Loompas' original name was the Whipple-Scrumpets.
  • Very early on, Charlie was black. Dahl's editor convinced him to drop that idea.
  • There's a lot of information here: