Subscribe
Follow Us
Prequels! They're what you make when you run out of ideas for sequels and remakes of the original film! And now we're getting one about that eccentric chocolatier and occasional child abductor, Willy Wonka. And if he's worthy of a prequel, perhaps other beloved blockbuster characters are too! So without further adieu, check out our ClutchPoints list of other blockbuster-worthy prequels we want to see after Wonka…
Top five blockbuster-worthy prequels to make after Wonka
Forward to the Past
How did Marty McFly and Doc Brown become friends before the events of Back to the Future? Was Marty working for Doc as an after school job? Or did an eccentric mad scientist just seek out the friendship of a teenage boy? Hmm, come to think of it, maybe this isn't the best idea for a prequel. Or perhaps, more than the friendship, the story could just focus on Doc Brown's journey to build a time machine, how he settled on the DeLorean, and his various steps (and missteps) along the way to bringing his vision of a flex capacitor to life and making time travel a reality. Not to mention the chance to cast a young Emmitt Brown and hear every young A-list actor's take on “Great Scott”!
Mighty Mick
No one's every accused Rocky of not having enough sequels, and now with the successful offshoot of Creed, the post-Rocky saga is even more well-covered. But what about Rocky's gruff, beleaguered, curmudgeonly yet lovable trainer Mickey Goldmill? Let's see his boxing story. Where did he learn to let a live chicken loose for boxers to pick up as a training exercise? Perhaps from his grandparents' kosher poultry shop (he was Jewish, as we learned from his funeral in Rocky III – but let's delve more into that religious background as well!)? What's the story behind that askew hat he's always wearing? How did he found Mighty Mick's boxing? And exactly what weight class was he eligible to fight in with that slender frame?
The Speed-Limit Adhering And The Mildly Peeved
How did Vin Diesel learn to respect his family so much as a young Dominic Toretto, and more importantly, how did he learn to drive so fast and furious? Was he ever an even-tempered young lad who enjoyed following the speed limit? And how did he get together with Letty Ortiz? Was she in his driver's ed class in high school? Toretto's journey through life's zigs and zags, and the rules of the road, could go against genre and be a fun John Hughes-esque take on that all-important teenage rite of passage… the driver's license. After all, it couldn't be any worse than the last few Fast and the Furious sequels!
Beast before Beauty
The Despicable Me franchise proved that animated films are prequel-worthy as well (assuming they're chock-full of adorable minions, of course). And since Disney has nearly exhausted its slate of animated classics to turn into live action movies, perhaps the studio should go back to its storied animated tales' humble beginnings and tell the stories before the fairy tales we all know and love. Maybe it's just me, but I sure wanted to know how Lumiere the candlestick and his dusting broom girlfriend made that relationship work before Belle came along and broke the spell on the castle, which turned everyone back into humans. I guess the more Disney-friendly story to tell would be how the nepo baby prince got turned into a hideous beast, and how he and his castle staff adjusted to Beast life before Belle came along. Come on, can't you picture an adorable movie poster of the beast shrugging to camera as he holds up a large hairball that was clogging his sink drain? This one practically writes itself!
Rosebud
Citizen Kane, still largely regarded as the greatest movie ever made, raised a lot of questions when Charles Foster Kane uttered his fateful dying words, “Rosebud.” That turned out to be the name of his beloved childhood sled, but we didn't find that out until the film's final scene! So I say we make a prequel of a young Charlie Foster Kane sledding around on his beloved Rosebud, having a blast and explaining where all that later-in-life sorrow and angst originated from. Maybe Charlie notices a flier for a sledding competition, where the winner gets $50,000 and their own newspaper publishing company — so he decides to enter! Then, against the odds, Charlie and Rosebud slide across the snow to glory, giving Charlie the confidence to tackle something even trickier than the diamond slopes… adulthood. Throw in a love interest and this has the makings of a great Hallmark movie, which I realize is probably an oxymoron.
Anyway, that's the list. Probably best to see Wonka first and make sure it's decent before adding any more prequels to development, but if and when you studio execs are ready to make more, please bump these titles to the top of the queue!
