Timothée Chalamet Turns Legendary Creep ‘Wonka’ Into a Joyful Lad

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.

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