The first trailer for Wonka, a prequel to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was released on Tuesday, featuring Timothée Chalamet in the lead role.
The Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name actor stars as a young version of the titular Willy Wonka, before the kooky chocolate mogul opens his factory.
The film tells of the “vivid, mythical beginnings of the imaginative young inventor before he becomes the renowned scrumdiddlyumptious Mozart of chocolate”, according to Warners.
It also stars a plethora of other big names, including, rather bizarrely, Hugh Grant as a CGI Oompa Loompa as well as Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Keegan-Michael Key.
“To work on something that will have an uncynical young audience, that was just a big joy,” Chalamet said in May. “That’s why I was drawn to it. In a time and climate of intense political rhetoric, when there’s so much bad news all the time, this is hopefully going to be a piece of chocolate.”
It’s safe to say the online reactions to Chalamet have been *mixed*.
Some fans had been hotly anticipating the trailer drop, with one posting an old video of Chalamet’s LaGuardia High School talent show performance set to Oompa Loompa with the caption, "HAPPY WONKA TRAILER DAY TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE."
Certain lines, and their quirky delivery from Chalamet, have gone particularly viral. Some goofy favourites include, “Nope! Scratch that. Reverse it. I’m making chocolate of, course” and “Here we go, mama.”
Chalamet himself even got in on the fun with a tweet reading, “HUGHMPA LOOMPA DOOPATY GRANT" in reference to Hugh Grant’s portrayal of an Oompa Loompa.
Some have questioned if Chalamet is inherently silly enough for a role like Wonka.
One Twitter user wrote: “Hate to say it but Timmy lacks the Whimsy. He is just not a silly little guy. He doesn’t have silly guy energy." The tweet has over 116k likes, suggesting others fear he isn’t cut out for the part.
Another user labelled it one of the “great miscastings of our time”, saying Chalamet is “simply not wacky enough to play willy wonka”.
But another user clapped back, again referencing Chalamet’s talent show performance, saying: “Timothée Chalamet doesn’t have silly guy energy?”
According to Rolling Stone, it was actually these high school performances that helped Chalamet nab the role. Before Paul King, the film’s director, offered him the role, he scoured the internet to check that Chalamet could sing.
“It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it,” King told the publication. “But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.
King has also heaped praised on Chalamet’s performance in the film. “I think what’s so remarkable about his performance is not only that he is funny and mischievous and quite mysterious as well – just like the Willy Wonka that people will know – but, also, he brings such heart to the role and he’s a brilliant actor,” King said in an interview with People. “He’s incredibly emotionally intelligent and can bring a great deal of emotional truth to the role.”
Wonka will be released this December.
