Netflix's Roald Dahl Universe Sets First Film Cast

The Roald Dahl Extended Universe is coming to streaming, and Netflix is wasting no time setting its boat down the chocolate river to success. The streaming service first made a deal with the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2018 to create animated adaptations of 16 of Dahl's biggest titles. Despite no films coming from it, in 2021 that deal became the whole kit and kaboodle, as Netflix acquired the entire company and all of the rights to Dahl's extensive catalog of works. As part of the announcement, Netflix revealed it planned to create an interconnected universe of projects that extend from animation to live-action TV and movies to video games and interactive experiences.

It doesn't matter if you've never seen a single Marvel film or TV series or subscribe to Disney+. The company has changed the entire industry in the last decade with its successful run of interconnected big-screen stories that have now become the model to follow in creating streaming series to entice subscribers into sticking around. When HBO Max was launched, it was done so with WarnerMedia's ownership of DC Comics and Harry Potter in mind, assuming they would follow suit. The latter's 20th Anniversary special success is a harbinger of streaming series to come.

Netflix may have been the one to create the streaming wars, but unlike its competitors, it started with zero content and has been frantically building from scratch. Though it has a few genuine out-of-the-box original successes, to compete, it has to get some of the bigger dogs, from Dark Horse and Vertigo Comics to the Dahl Company. The Dahliverse, as you might term it, will launch with its first live-action film based on the previously never-adapted The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More. The new film sports a who's who of British actors, including Dev Patel (The Green Knight), Ralph Fiennes (James Bond), Sir Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock).