Warner Bros. Pictures just screened an extended trailer for Wonka at CinemaCon 2023 and fans finally got a preview of Hugh Grant playing as an Oompa Loompa in the upcoming movie.
The new trailer reveals Grant’s character rendered in CGI as an Oompa Loompa. The movie’s producer reportedly refused to hire actors with dwarfism for the role to avoid causing offense. Grant said that his character has “a perfectly respectable size.”
According to reports, Grant’s Oompa Loompa is sassy and may prove to be a scene-stealer in the upcoming movie.
Wonka takes place before the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, effectively serving as a sequel.
According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the upcoming movie is “an origin story that explores the vivid, mythical beginnings of the imaginative young inventor before he becomes the renowned scrumdiddlyumptious Mozart of chocolate.
If you haven’t watched a Willy Wonka movie yet, Oompa Loompas are workers in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Willy Wonka went to Loompaland and invited the Oompa Loompas to work at his factory after seeing the terrible conditions that they were living in.
The Oompa Loompas have been controversial as author Roald Dahl originally wrote that they hailed from the jungles of Africa. The diminutive characters were depicted as African Pygmies in the original artwork.
Dahl changed the appearance of the Oompa Loompas in later editions as groups raised concerns about slavery overtone. The 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory also cast actors with dwarfism as Oompa Loompas, but they were portrayed to have green hair and orange skin and have since been decried as offensive. Deep Roy starred as an Oompa Loompa in Tim Burton’s 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory alongside Johnny Depp.
The casting of Grant as a tiny CGI version of himself may be the filmmaker’s attempt to avoid controversies.
Wonka stars Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka alongside an ensemble cast including Grant, Rowan Atkinson, Mathew Baynton, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, Tom Davis, Simon Farnaby, Rich Fulcher, Sally Hawkins, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Paterson Joseph, Keegan-Michael Key, Calah Lane, Matt Lucas, Colin O’Brien, Natasha Rothwell, and Ellie White.
The upcoming prequel will be directed by Paul King with the screenplay being written by Simon Farnaby and King.
Wonka is coming to theaters on December 15.
