For all of the hype surrounding Wonka—Warner Bros.’ upcoming prequel film to Roald Dahl’s beloved 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novel—no one was expecting Timothée Chalamet’s take on the iconic sociopath to be quite so… cheery.
In Wonka, Chalamet takes up the torch from past Wonka stars Gene Wilder (1971) and Johnny Depp (2005) as a young Willy, who still seems completely in love with all things candy-coated. “I’ve spent the past seven years traveling the world, perfecting my craft,” Chalamet says in the film’s first trailer, after Willy Wonka’s ship docks in a fantastical version of London. We see Wonka offer up some chocolate to a new friend (played by actress Calah Lane), already with his own twists on the popular confection. “How do you like it?” Wonka asks, pouring potions and elixirs into his concoction. “Dark, white, nutty, absolutely insane?”
Chalamet’s take on the character is avuncular and cutesy, as jovial as you can get in three minutes or less. But this version of Wonka—wide-eyed and just grateful to do what he loves—is much unlike the Wonka we’ve come to know. Gene Wilder’s take on Dahl’s chocolatier Willy Wonka in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was unforgettably afflicted, and often downright terrifying. There isn’t a person alive who has been able to scrub the tunnel scene from their minds after seeing it as a child. Willy Wonka was a jaded, browbeaten, guy whose only friends were an acapella troupe of mystic-tanned, green-haired oompa loompas.
With a crick of his neck to the right and wily eyes, Chalamet gives a little spark of Wilder’s classic Wonka, suggesting that there’s still some madness underneath all of that plucky exterior. Perhaps that’s our sign that we will indeed see how this younger Wonka will transform into the madman, wackadoo recluse we’ve come to know and maybe even (reluctantly) love. Then again, it could be the only taste of Wonka’s lunacy that we get. After all, this isn’t just a prequel; it’s also a movie geared toward children, at a time when kids' movies are much less scary than those of yore.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Despite the visible differences in Wonka’s demeanor, Chalamet’s take is irrefutably charming. The Wonka trailer may only be just shy of 180 seconds long, but Chalamet is already defying the tepid expectations that his casting generated. The actor doesn’t just mimic Wilder’s memorably spry performance as Wonka; he elevates it and pushes the character’s physicality further. Chalamet’s eyes go wide with delight every time his Wonka talks about his passion for candy, and his expressions hold just enough volatility under the shadow of that brown top hat to make this version of the character seem true to the text.
Chalamet also has the acting chops to make Willy Wonka a legitimately empathetic character. Only a few glimpses of Wonka’s backstory are revealed in this first trailer, such as when Wonka envisions his mother blowing him a kiss among the crowd of Londoners. “Here we go, mama,” Wonka says, before bursts of cotton candy-colored mayhem unfold. Perhaps it’s only movie magic at work, but Chalamet’s convincing earnestness is already rounding this character into a more three-dimensional personality than he ever was before.
All of this could be enough to turn Wonka into the classic 2012 Tumblr boyfriend: a skinny and highly animated charmer, dancing around in a suit. (Think one of the modern Doctors from Doctor Who or The Onceler from The Lorax movie.) Maybe that’s just the thing that will get audiences to the theater in droves.
With Chalamet leading the latest film inspired by the legendary Dahl—and Wonka being produced by the teams behind (and looking exactly like an amalgamation of) Paddington and the Harry Potter franchise—the prequel already has a built-in audience of millions. If the Timothée Chalamet fandom was ravenous before, things are going to reach great new heights once Wonka opens in theaters on December 15.
