New WILLY WONKA Film Potentially An Origin Story

Slashfilm is strongly hinting that the newly announced Willy Wonka film will be an origin story. That indication comes from an interview the team did with producer David Heyman, who had this to say...

"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."

The film will be based on the character created by author Roald Dahl, but not so much from the source material. This seems mainly due to the fact that there are no details of Wonka's past or future outside of the book...

"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 or 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."

I'm trying to imagine what a film about Willy Wonka in his youth would be about, and I genuinely can't picture it. Can we assume that Johnny Depp is back in as Wonka, or will the studio go another direction and pull in someone younger for the role? I guess I should wait on that speculation until it's confirmed that this is for sure going to be an origin story.