Despite reports over the years that Warner Bros. was courting the likes of Donald Glover, Ezra Miller and Ryan Gosling to play Willy Wonka, it was only Timothe Chalamet who got the offer to lead director Paul Kings prequel musical Wonka. And Chalamet didnt even have to audition. King recently told Rolling Stone that he was a Chalamet stan and thus knew the actor had the singing and dancing chops required to play Wonka.
It was a straight offer because hes great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it, King said. But because hes Timothe Chalamet and his life is so absurd, hishigh school musical performancesare onYouTubeand have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.
King continued, I knew that was in his arsenal, but I didnt know how good he was. When I spoke to him he was quite keen. Hed done tap dancing in high school and he was like, Id quite like to show people I can do that.
Wonka is a proper musical that feels like a really fun hat off to the golden age of MGM musicals, King said of the project. The director is best known for helming the beloved Paddington movies, but he said Wonka has a much different tone.
Certainly, I tried to have darker characters than [what] you would find in aPaddingtonmovie, for example, King told Rolling Stone. Its a crueler world and its a meaner world that Willy Wonka finds himself in because thats the sort of city that Charlie grows up in. Unlike thePaddingtonworld, not everyone is nice in aRoald Dahlworld. I definitely got to play with those grotesque ideas, but I hope not to damage a generation of children.
Wonka opens in theaters nationwide December 15 from Warner Bros.