Timothée Chalamet is “Wonka” in First Trailer About the Legendary Chocolatier’s Younger Years
The first trailer for Wonka arrived on a chocolate tide, carried on peppermint winds, and boasts the first good look at Timothée Chalamet as the iconic chocolatier in the years before he opened up his magical chocolate factory. Wonka promises to reveal how the restless inventor of all things wondrous and sweet became the Willy Wonka that mesmerized millions of children, first through the pages of Roald Dahl’s iconic work and then in the 1971 adaptation Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which the playful, ever-so-slightly maniacal magician of chocolate was played by the great Gene Wilder.
Wonka comes from Paddington director Paul King, based on a script by King, Simon Farnaby, and Simon Rich, so you can bet the story and the performances will be full-hearted rather than wink-wink. The trailer reveals Willy’s travels as a young man as he sets about creating a chocolate empire, one fabulous creation at a time. Yet it won’t be all sugarplums and peppermint patties; there’s a Chocolate Cartel that aims to thwart the young man’s dreams, and for every precious dream Willy has, rude reality awaits to bring him back down to earth. This doesn’t mean, however, that the irrepressible creator will quit—in fact, at one point in the trailer, one of his creations, as it did so memorably in the original film, gives those that eat it the ability to fly.
Wonka will include plenty of singing—Chalamet is said to have seven songs himself—and a cast that includes Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa, Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Calah Lane, Colin O’Brien, Matt Lucas, Simon Farnaby, Natasha Rothwell, and Rufus Jones.
Check out the trailer below. Wonka hits theaters on December 15.
Here’s the official synopsis for Wonka:
Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book and one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.
From Paul King, writer/director of the “Paddington” films, David Heyman, producer of “Harry Potter,” “Gravity,” “Fantastic Beasts” and “Paddington,” and producers Alexandra Derbyshire (the “Paddington” films, “Jurassic World: Dominion”) and Luke Kelly (“Roald Dahl’s The Witches”), comes an intoxicating mix of magic and music, mayhem and emotion, all told with fabulous heart and humor. Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time—proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.
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Featured image: Caption: TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET as Willy Wonka in Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures’ “WONKA,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
