In one of this year’s highest-grossing movies, Backrooms, the influence of 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory can be seen with ease. As Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is first discovering the liminal space of the backrooms, he climbs up an inclined pathway towards a miniature door. In passing through this door, he exits to a much more spacious territory, drawing curiosity to why the door was so small in the first place. One can’t help but think of the iconic scene in Willy Wonka in which something extremely similar is achieved. Moments like this, relaying homage or inspiration to Willy Wonka, have been around for nearly as long as the film itself and prove that its cultural footprint isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Nearly 55 years ago, Gene Wilder starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as the titular Willy Wonka, and in doing so, effectively altered the path of not only his legacy but the legacy of cinema as a whole. Of course, his Academy Award nominations for both 1969’s The Producers (Best Supporting Actor) and 1974’s Young Frankenstein (Best Adapted Screenplay) come on either side of the release of Willy Wonka and leave a critical legacy behind. Yet, it’s his performance in Willy Wonka that has shaped two other renditions of the character, varying in success and alteration, and remains one of the great movie characters to this day.
The film’s formula – a group of five children each finding a highly prized Golden Ticket to take part in a coveted journey into a bizarre, out-of-reach world, in search of a great reward – has stood the test of time. Most notably achieved in this movie itself, it has found its way into the bedrock of generations of films that have followed. Everything from Richard Donner’s The Goonies (1985), in which a group of children find a map leading them on an adventure into the most curious facets of their world in search of treasure, to Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018), where a “Golden Egg” is left behind for players of a virtual reality to find, offering control of the extraordinary world once found.
Perhaps the coolest and most interesting entry into the Willy Wonka lineage is David Fincher’s The Game (1997). Whether intentionally following in its footsteps or not, The Game manages to adhere to what is, perhaps, the most important part of the film that came 28 years before it: a character entering a ludicrous and offbeat environment in hopes of having their worldview changed. Michael Douglas’s character, Nicholas Van Ortan, is put through several mind-bending tasks, of course, much more violent than those associated with Wonka’s chocolate factory, in order to see the world through a different lens. And it works. It isn’t a novel narrative journey, nor one exclusive to Willy Wonka, but one that’s fascinating enough to resonate across varying years and film genres.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory also exhibits its staying power in the iterations that have come after it. With each offering something noticeably different than the original, the impossibility of replicating something of such nutty energy and unique visuals is clear. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) was the attempted reimagining of the Wonka-verse, as you could now call it, featuring Tim Burton-inspired production design and Johnny Depp-sized weirdness. It failed on nearly all accounts. That’s all we really need to say about that one.
However, 2023’s Wonka, a conceived “prequel” of sorts that sees the character of Willy Wonka before he builds his chocolate factory, was an instant cultural icon. Timothée Chalamet brought a much more grounded, equally inquisitive character to the screen, redefining the children’s story for a new generation.
All roads lead back to the original, though. Chalamet said he wanted to emulate Wilder’s “childlike playfulness” in his rendition of the character, further cementing the fact that the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is ground zero for so many things that have come after it. The cultural impact remains significant. It even received a Lego set just last year!
One of the more underrated and lesser identified contributions of the film centers around Wilder’s life-changing one-liners. While they aren’t baked into society and film culture quite the same way as the idea of his character, they remain a constant source of affirmation and life advice, said in ways that infect the brain in a manner just so. From “the suspense is terrible.. I hope it’ll last,” arguably one of the most iconic lines in the movie, all the way to my personal favorite of “a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men”. These “Wonka-isms” support the aura of oddity that only Wilder was able to capture. Furthermore, the “condescending Wonka” meme has become baked into society and film culture in a way that is surprising to all.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory remains as pertinent and inspirational today, in 2026, as it was 55 years ago. My local repertory theater just screened an original 35mm print of the film to a sold-out crowd full of adults and children alike, shining the beautiful production design (that still remains a gold standard for movies to this day!) and whimsical story across a multitude of generations. It’s a film that offers an endless ability to revisit it, with different sequences and sayings becoming the new favorite with each subsequent viewing. It’s a story that continues to hold moral and thematic value. One of caution, optimism, and honesty, that continues to inspire movie-goers and movie-makers all the same.
Willy Wonka summed up the legacy of the film perfectly on the day of its release so many years ago. “So shines a good deed in a weary world,” he said while grasping an everlasting gobstopper across his desk. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory itself is that good deed in a weary world, offering light, joy, and whimsy to all who have encountered it, and will continue to encounter it for many years to come.
Retrospective Courtesy of Ethan Simmie
Feature Image Credit to Paramount Pictures