The headlines:
Who’s in the cast of Wonka?
The heartthrob of our time, Timothée Chalamet, alongside the likes of Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant and Sally Hawkins.
What’s the plot of Wonka?
The film is set to tell Willy Wonka’s origin story, from young adventurer to prolific chocolate maker, long before his appearance in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
When will Wonka be released?
Wonka is due to land in cinemas on 15 December 2023.
Is there a trailer for Wonka?
Yes! Watch it below.
The details:
Joining the actor, who inherits the part of the titular eccentric inventor from Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, is—wait for it—Hugh Grant as a tiny, green-haired Oompa Loompa; Olivia Colman as a Cockney-accented innkeeper; Sally Hawkins as Wonka’s beloved mother; Matt Lucas as a member of the nefarious chocolate cartel; and Rowan Atkinson as a priest. Also lending support? Comedian Keegan-Michael Key, returning The White Lotus star Natasha Rothwell, and Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter, all under the direction of Paddington’s Paul King.
The trailer is utterly joyous
While exact plot details remain under wraps, the first trailer, which dropped on 11 July, offers a taste of what we’ll see from the future chocolate factory owner in the sumptuous prequel. “I’ve spent the past seven years travelling the world perfecting my craft,” our hero says in its opening seconds, as we see him sailing the high seas and wandering into lush forests to pick exotic fruit. “I’m something of a magician, inventor and chocolate maker.” Cut to his arrival in London, at an inn run by Olivia Colman’s character, and a flurry of chocolate-making—but selling his wares proves difficult due to the power of the chocolate cartel. Cue a pastel-pink flash mob led by a fleet-footed Chalamet, a crowd sampling chocolates that make you fly, flamingos running riot on the streets of the city, a giraffe chasing Rowan Atkinson through a cathedral, and Wonka meeting Hugh Grant’s dancing Oompa Loompa.
There will be seven epic musical numbers
Chalamet confirmed as much in his cover interview for British Vogue’s October 2022 issue, adding, “This movie is so sincere, it’s so joyous.” As for how director Paul King knew the actor could handle that? “It was a straight offer [without an audition] because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it, 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,” King recently told Rolling Stone. “I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well. And I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didn’t know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that.’”
It’ll be in cinemas before Christmas
For fans, it’s been a long and agonising wait since Chalamet shared the first image of himself in character on Instagram back in October 2021, but the end is now finally in sight: Wonka will arrive in cinemas on 15 December 2023.
This article was first published on British Vogue.
