Even in his younger years, Willy Wonka was a showman. He schmoozed, he preened, he danced, and he most certainly sang—though you wouldn’t know it from the trailers for Wonka, the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel starring Timothée Chalamet as the 20-something chocolatier that hits theaters December 15. The first preview was notable mostly for introducing audiences to the dignified Oompa Loompa Hugh Grant plays in the movie. The second, released Thursday, gives a bit more information about the film’s plot, and even reveals Grant’s diminutive sidekick warbling a few bars of an updated “Oompa Loompa” song.
But you know who doesn’t sing? Lil Timmy Tim, that’s who!
Perhaps this is by design. Though the movie clearly features one or more elaborate production numbers—they’re there, we can see them—Wonka director Paul King would rather not call it a full-fledged musical. “The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and [author Roald] Dahl always uses poetry. But I didn’t want it to just become a musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical,” he recently told Total Film magazine.
That said, King also thinks his leading man has “a beautiful singing voice,” reminiscent of musical great Bing Crosby. “There’s quite a range because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion, and he can do it all…. I’m going to sound like a crazed fan,” he says in the same interview.
Worried about sounding like a crazed fan, King? We’ll do you one better: Show us Chalamet’s Wonka belting out one of Wonka’s original songs right now! If your movie is even adjacent to being a musical, why wouldn’t you want potential viewers to hear said music?
Sure, conventional contemporary Hollywood wisdom still holds that wider audiences don’t like song-and-dance movies; West Side Story, In the Heights, and (notoriously) Cats all underperformed in recent years, reinforcing that idea. But you know what recent-ish movie made more than $430 million worldwide? The Greatest Showman. And you know what star Hugh Jackman wears throughout much of that movie? A fancy, flashy top-hat-and-tails combo—just like Willy Wonka. So, please, Warner Bros., consider making trailer no. 3 the one where we finally hear Chalamet’s croon. It might just be the golden ticket Wonka needs.
