One thing was absolutely certain - life had never been sweeter for Charlie Bucket; coming from humble origins, he grew up in a rundown shack on the edge of East London with very little money flowing into the home, a limited diet consisting mostly of cabbage soup nearly stunted his growth, and the automation of modern industry almost shut off their only source of household income forever. But despite all that, he was one of the happiest children in the world. Charlie had the most wonderful family, two hardworking parents and all four of his loving grandparents. While he always dreamed of a better life, even at a young age, deep down he knew there was little chance his family would ever make it out of grinding poverty. As Charlie grew up and became more aware of his social standing, or lack thereof, it was nothing short of a miracle that the man who would change his and his family's lives forever made a rare public proclamation. The world's greatest confectioner, the reclusive Willy Wonka announced a contest where five lucky winners would get a tour of his massive factory. Of those five winners, Charlie was the only one not to get himself into trouble in Wonka's factory, leaving him as the last-man-standing and marking him as the person Wonka wanted by his side. Apart from ginning publicity for his brand of candies, Wonka initiated this contest in hopes of finding an heir to his empire as he had no natural kin of his own, and while there were a few hick-ups along the way Charlie inevitably accepted Wonka's invitation to come live and work with him.

Charlie spent his teenage years learning the tricks of the candy trade from Wonka, and by the time of his 18th birthday Wonka was ready to bestow Charlie half of the companies' shares and the title of Chief Operating Officer of Wonka Candies, Ltd. and Wonka Worldwide, Inc. Despite a knack for coming up with new candy ideas, Wonka delegated many business responsibilities to Charlie, primarily anything dealing with the outside world, and he had a good reason for doing so. As a hermit, Wonka did not wish Charlie to mature into a clone of him and often urged him to venture out of the factory for both business and personal reasons. Like his extremely fair skin, Wonka noticed that his years of solitude resulted in him being far from sociable and extremely awkward, and he too noticed these traits forming in Charlie throughout his adolescence. In an attempt to curtail this, Wonka often sent Charlie out to speaking events and business forums across the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, North America and Asia, along with promotional events in those areas as well as emerging markets like Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Despite a lack of education in economics, business administration, or any other related fields, Charlie unintentionally made a name for himself in business circles as a creative young entrepreneur with an uplifting backstory screaming to be made into a major motion picture.

Notwithstanding the accolades of his peers, Charlie often felt out of place with the world's elite businessmen, he was not a business genius, just a former kid who knew how to behave himself. Now, at the age of twenty-four, Charlie had been to every continent and beyond as a representative of his mentor's business, yet he still felt empty inside. While he was grateful for the life that had been granted to him, Charlie often contemplated a life greater than spending all his time with Wonka coming up with new candies, attending business functions or giving interviews to the media. Following his designation as an official player in Wonka's empire and his trips outside the factory, Charlie made it routine to get a few drinks before returning home in hopes of meeting someone. That was the case one May night following a conference on the future of British businesses with Brexit on the horizon, Charlie walked out of the hotel convention center and made his way to the closest pub he could spot. The bar, Fenston's, was your run-of-the-mill tavern in the economic heart of the British capital, the City of London, with small tables spread around and a mostly empty bar. He headed towards the bar and ordered an ale beer as he unbuttoned his suit, along with the top buttons of his shirt and loosened the tie that brought the look together.

Charlie had grown up to be a cute but awkward young man, dubbed cute by countless women commenting on the soft features of his face and his meekly personality, evoking an almost boyish image in many of them. His full head of brown hair was rather nerdishly combed on the sides while the top remained uncombed in a fashion that did not qualify to be considered too-cool-to-care. The area around his mouth and jaw were covered in a faint stubble as a result of shaving since facial hair would not be practical for someone who works in factory that produces an edible product, as well as to partially masquerade a quasi-weak jawline. His eyes only appeared large and bright when he accentuated them and his lips were rather thin, just like the rest of his slender, unmuscular body. Unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt and loosening his tie also exposed the length of his neck, leaving his almost lightbulb-shaped head towering above many people. Apart from his social ineptitude and lack of beauty-standards-appropriate physical features, Charlie also had one other handicap when it came to meeting someone, his extensive wealth.

He was one of the farthest things from a Casanova on the dating scene, but whenever he was around women who knew he was the heir to the Wonka empire any observer would easily mark him as a Don Juan. Gold diggers made it hard for Charlie to find love but the moment he realized many women were only after his money he concluded that he better get used to this reality. It would not be so bad if he could find women through other means, but with less-than-desirable features and a shy personality the dating pool was rather shallow. Charlie often pondered if his only hope for finding love would be to find an heiress with equally or even more socially repulsive traits. While this seemed a bit odd and reeked of desperation, to be honest he really did not care what his potential life partner looked like. In fact, he did not know why he said this, but Charlie often told himself he would not mind if she had the soles of her feet covered in warts. All that mattered was that she had at least a shred of goodness in her heart as even a single shred of that rare quality would be worth cultivating with unconditional love.

After finishing his tall glass, Charlie signaled the bartender for another ale which the middle-aged man acknowledged and brought the important businessman another drink. After taking a sip from his second glass of beer, Charlie turned around and examined the other patrons in the bar, especially the women. For the most part they were good-looking, but the aforementioned problems were still present. Some of the women were above-average looking, meaning Charlie's appearance and social abilities would be a turn-off for them, whereas the average-looking women would not necessarily be averse to those traits, but they would still only notice his wallet. Even with the first beer in his system, the constant reminder of this paradigm ate away at Charlie's soul, leaving him no option but to continue drinking. Now with half of his second drink gone and a sense of dread and despair coming over him, Charlie knew that it was almost time to call it quits for the night, the last thing the Wonka legacy needed was a depressed drunk responsible for bringing joy to kids around the world through his confections. He decided to stay for a bit and finish the remainder of his second ale before heading back to Wonka's factory, and it was that direction which set him on a course that would alter his life forever.