Paul King's Wonka film has a lot of question marks given the lack of details known about the Timothée Chalamet-led film, but a recent press event unveiled the first footage from the film and an interesting connection to the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory from the director himself.

Speaking at the aforementioned trailer event, King came out and said that his goal with Wonka was to create a film that could “sit alongside” Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory film (which starred Gene Wilder as the titular character). He called his own film a “companion” to those two projects, according to Emily Zemler who was in attendance at this event.

https://twitter.com/emilyzemler/status/1676607517395173376?s=20

Wonka is a prequel film of sorts that will follow a young version of its titular character (played by Chalamet) prior to opening the famous chocolate factory. Paul King directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby. Farnaby first starred in King's Paddington film before co-writing the sequel's script with King.

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Timothée Chalamet will lead the Wonka film, but the ensemble is filled with A-listers (and Farnaby himself). Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Colman, and Sally Hawkins are all set to star in the film as well.

The latter half of 2023 is set to be dominated by Chalamet as he's not only set to star in Wonka, but he will also star in Dune: Part Two as Paul Atreides once again in the sequel to Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film. It's the second half of Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's massive sci-fi classic novel and another Warner Bros. project.

Wonka will be released on December 15.