Winter is Coming
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Netflix basically owns all of Roald Dahl’s catalog now

By Mia Johnson

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - A family musical fantasy in which an eccentric candy maker hides five golden tickets inside five candy bars and then tests the honesty of the winners to determine who gets the dream-of-a-lifetime jackpot.(©WOLPER PICTURES, LTD.)L TO R, BACK ROW: MICHAEL BOLLNER, URSULA REIT, GENE WILDER; L TO R, MIDDLE ROW: LEONARD STONE, ROY KINNEAR; L TO R, FRONT ROW: DENISE NICKERSON, JULIE DAWN COLE, NORA DENNEY, PARIS THEMMEN, PETER OSTRUM, JACK ALBERTSON
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - A family musical fantasy in which an eccentric candy maker hides five golden tickets inside five candy bars and then tests the honesty of the winners to determine who gets the dream-of-a-lifetime jackpot.(©WOLPER PICTURES, LTD.)L TO R, BACK ROW: MICHAEL BOLLNER, URSULA REIT, GENE WILDER; L TO R, MIDDLE ROW: LEONARD STONE, ROY KINNEAR; L TO R, FRONT ROW: DENISE NICKERSON, JULIE DAWN COLE, NORA DENNEY, PARIS THEMMEN, PETER OSTRUM, JACK ALBERTSON /
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Come with Netflix, and you’ll soon be in a world of pure imagination. No, you won’t be taking a tunnel boat ride down a chocolate river with them. But you will get to experience a brand new take on Roald Dahl classics thanks to their latest acquisition.

As of today, Netflix has acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company. As SyFy Wire notes, that means they will own the rights to famed stories such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and many more.

We rarely (if ever) have seen a streaming platform acquire the rights to some kind of legacy company in this way. Typically, we see giants like Disney buying up the likes of Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and even the Muppets. But this acquisition opens up a new path for Netflix.

As the company wrote in its announcement blog post, Netflix is aiming to create “a unique universe across animated and live-action films and TV, publishing, games, immersive experiences, live theatre, consumer products and more.”

Much more Roald Dahl to come

On that last note, it’s interesting to see Netflix ready to venture out into the worlds of theater and gaming. (Well, they’ve already made plans for gaming, at least.) In the past, there have been theatrical productions based on Dahl’s work. But in the future, will we see “Netflix presents: Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox” on theater marquees?

Netflix already had some Roald Dahl projects in the works — Taika Waititi and Phil Johnston are creating a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series, and the streamer is teaming up with Sony for Matilda The Musical — so this buyout seems like the natural next step.

Warner Bros. also has a Willy Wonka prequel/origin film in the works that’s independent of Netflix right now. It looks like a Roald Dahl renaissance is on the way.

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