i thought someone had bought the rights to the movie from them?
I tried to do some research
The book was released back in 1964. Wholper Pictures (the original company behind the movie) bought the rights to adapt the book into
ONE film. Wholper Pictures wasn’t given the rights to keep making any sequels or remakes (from the sounds of it). Later, Warner Bros bought Wholper Pictures, allowing Warner to own the original film. When Warner Bros wanted to make the 2005 remake, they still had to approach the Roald Dahl estate. In 2016, Warner Bros approached the Dahl estate again to get the rights to make a Wonka prequel film. The Wonka film is set for 2023 and it seems like progress is continuing on the film.
In 2021 however, Netflix bought the Ronald Dahl Story Company. The website says, “The Roald Dahl Story Company Ltd manages the copyrights and trademarks of author Roald Dahl and works with publishers, film-makers, theatre producers, merchandisers and other licensees worldwide”. It’s unknown for sure, but I guess the estate and story company are the same. A few years earlier, Netflix already bought the rights to make a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory animated series. This company acquisition gives Netflix the rights to every book by Ronald Dahl and decide the fate about who gets the rights to what in the future.
So Warner Bros owns their version of the movie, while Netflix owns the property as a whole, right?
Everything I just mentioned changes when we look at Tom & Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (2017). This was a direct-to-video movie produced by Warner Bros Entertainment. This film is basically a retelling of the 1971 classic film, the big change is that Tom and Jerry are now apart of the story. This also includes new plot points never seen in the original film. I researched the movie and there is not a single mention in the intro or outro of the Dahl estate or The Roald Dahl Story Company. However, at the very end of the movie, you can see the following:
“CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and all related characters and elements are trademarks of WBEI”.
This raises
even more questions about the property and film rights.
Whatever I say below is heavy speculation by me:
Warner Bros owns everything relating to the 1971 movie, but they can’t do anything except retell/adapt their own original story. I also don’t think Netflix has any rights to anything originally created by Warner Bros (Wholper Pictures), even when they own the Roald Dahl Story Company. They are both basically at a stand still. Netflix can really only use anything that was in the book (including what Wholper Pictures borrowed as well) & what they create themselves.
Now back to the most important question, could Grandpa Joe or any other Wonka character enter MultiVersus. It’s still not a for sure thing about what they can or can’t do. My guess is that Warner owns everything from the movie, including their own versions of Willy Wonka, Charlie, Grandpa Joe, etc. Just because Warner Bros owns the 1971 version of Grandpa Joe, doesn’t mean they own the book or future versions of Grandpa Joe. After all the research, I don’t think there are any rights issues holding 1971 Grandpa Joe back. Even though I think they can only retell the story, I do think they can still use the characters for stuff like MultiVersus. I probably wouldn’t expect him to show up in a story mode though.
