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Christopher Nolan has a lot to answer for, with modern Hollywood’s obsession over the dark and gritty reboot tracing right back to the filmmaker’s acclaimed Batman Begins, which inadvertently set the template for how various studios around town would approach the reinvention of an iconic character.
It’s long since grown passe at this point, which is no surprise when countless properties adopted a nearly identical approach, so thank the stars that Wonka won’t be following suit. Of course, the notion of a self-serious and haunting origin story for a chocolatier with a penchant for purple sounds ludicrous, especially when the creative team behind the family-friendly and delightfully whimsical Paddington duology are on board.
In a new interview with TIME Magazine, leading man Timothee Chalamet sought to assuage any doubts once and for all, confirming that Wonka will be a celebration of the eccentric.
“It’s not mining the darker emotions in life. It’s a celebration of being off-center and of being okay with the weirder parts of you that don’t quite fit in.”
Willy Wonka is a very strange dude, which was leaned into by both Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, so it’s heartening to know that we won’t be seeing him fall into a vat of melted chocolate or get bitten by a radioactive gummy worm, only to emerge a much different person on the other side. The internet approved of the first look at Chalamet in costume, we just need Wonka to tell a story to match.