Netflix Adapting Roald Dahl Books ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Matilda’ and More Into Animated Event Series

Netflix is getting into the Roald Dahl business with a plan to turn several of the beloved writer’s books into a slate of animated event series. Almost all the titles have already been adapted into films – including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and more – but the streaming service plans to reimagine and extend the books into something new.

Roald Dahl’s stories are cherished by many, and have been the basis for some excellent (and not so excellent) films. Now, Netflix hopes to reimagine Dahl’s work for a whole new generation by teaming with The Roald Dahl Story Company to create an “exclusive new slate of original animated event series, based on the books from the acclaimed and award-winning author’s best-selling library, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG, The Twits, and many other beloved titles.”

“Our mission, which is purposefully lofty, is for as many children as possible around the world to experience the unique magic and positive message of Roald Dahl’s stories,” said Felicity Dahl, Roald Dahl’s widow. “This partnership with Netflix marks a significant move toward making that possible and is an incredibly exciting new chapter for the Roald Dahl Story Company. Roald would, I know, be thrilled.”

“Immersing ourselves in the extraordinary worlds of Roald Dahl stories has been an honor and a massive amount of fun, and we are grateful for the trust the Roald Dahl Story Company and the Dahl family have placed in our team to deliver more moments of shared joy to families around the world,” added Melissa Cobb, Vice President of Kids & Family Content at Netflix. “We have great creative ambition to reimagine the journeys of so many treasured Dahl characters in fresh, contemporary ways with the highest quality animation and production values.”

“Netflix is known for innovative and high-quality storytelling,” commented Gideon Simeloff, Strategy Director for The Roald Dahl Story Company. “There is no other place in the world that can deliver animated entertainment for the whole family at such quality and scale.”

Netflix plans to “bring together the highest quality creative, visual, and writing teams to extend the stories in this first-of-its-kind slate of premium animated event series and specials for audiences of all ages and for families to enjoy together.” While Netflix is calling these “reiminaginings”, they’re also saying they intend to”remain faithful to the quintessential spirit and tone of Dahl while also building out an imaginative story universe that expands far beyond the pages of the books themselves.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Most of these titles are very familiar due to their film adaptations, and Netflix will have to differentiate their adaptations in some ways to stay fresh. Production won’t start on the first show until 2019, so there’s no real footage. That said, you can watch a quick teaser below.