Get your golden tickets at the ready: the first full-length trailer for the Timothee Chalamet-starring prequel to Roahl Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka, has arrived.
Here are a few things it reminds us of: The Polar Express, Nanny McPhee, flash mobs, prepubescent drama geek, Bake Off, nits, consumption, Paperchase, Call the Midwife, iron deficiency, ye olde YouTube influencers (Joolz Guides), bunting, Galaxy chocolate, Hogsmeade.
Slated for release on December 15, the film is clearly meant as a Christmas blockbuster, with family favourites such as Mr Bean and Hugh Grant also on the line-up. It will explore the backstory of how a young Willy Wonka first met the Oompa-Loompas – and, colonial undertones aside, Chalamet’s rendition of the eccentric chocolatier is already giving Disney adult energy.
The trailer features Chalamet dancing on a cafe tabletop, leading a chorus of umbrella-wielding dancers in what appears to be one of seven musical numbers in the film. Also starring is Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Keegan-Michael Key, Matthew Baynton, Matt Lucas, Jim Carter, Natasha Rothwell, Simon Farnaby, Paterson Joseph, Tom Davis, Rakhee Thakrar, Justin Edwards, Colin O’Brien, Ellie White, Freya Parker and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
“To work on something that will have an uncynical young audience, that was just a big joy,” Chalamet told Vogue earlier this year. “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.”
How do you like it? Dark, white, nutty? Watch the trailer above.