This Willy Wonka theory is blowing the fandom world wide open
You think you know everything about Willy Wonka, and then a fan theory comes along and shatters the very foundation of his chocolate factory. According to one Reddit user, Willy Wonka and our favorite Time-Lord are one in the same.
What? Yes. As user LemoLuke writes, they’ve gathered enough evidence to support the fact that Willy Wonka is actually the final regeneration of The Doctor, who has chosen to abandon the TARDIS and instead run a chocolate factory, which actually sounds like the best retirement plan ever.
The evidence to support this theory mostly comes from the books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Don’t worry if you haven’t read either one of these (but you really should) because their stories translate to the screen with both the Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp versions. Except for all the parts about space travel and aliens, which means you’re going to have to read Great Glass Elevator eventually.
In the meantime, follow this: Willy Wonka is an older man with child-like wonder, loves adventure and has a great level-head, but is actually very lonely in his giant chocolate factory. Remind you of anyone else?
There’s also the Great Glass Elevator. In the books, you’ll learn that it can fly, travel through space, and is a lot larger than it appears on the outside. Remind you of anything else?
As LemoLuke writes, they believe that later on The Doctor grows tired of his travels through space and the TARDIS begins to lose its steam. The Doctor decides to retire to Earth. Because of his love of jelly babies (beans), LemoLuke writes, The Doctor “opens a small sweet shop where he can share his fantastic adventures with the children who visit, whose parents merely shrug them off as fairy tales…he begins to create all kinds of fantastic confectionery, the likes of which have never been seen on Earth before, and before long becomes the number one manufacturer of sweets in the world.”
The Great Glass Elevator is simply the TARDIS in disguise, and for one final adventure, The Doctor needs a new companion. In steps Charlie Bucket.
Whoa. As crazy as it sounds, and it does sound crazy, it makes sense. Little is known about Willy Wonka’s backstory, aside from the fact that he has no living relatives (the 2005 movie slightly changes this story) and is getting too old to keep running the factory himself. Eventually The Doctor’s going to get tired of traveling, and can’t you just see him creating a chocolate river? And both characters do love bowties.
You can read the whole theory here, and while Willy Wonka might not actually be the Time-Lord, there’s nothing that outright says he can’t be the Time-Lord. Decide for yourself.
(Images via Warner Bros./BBC)
