A batch of exclusive images from the forthcoming movie musical Wonka have been released, and among them is a first look at Hugh Grant in costume as a tiny, orange, green-haired Oompa-Loompa.
It was revealed back in April that the English actor, 62, would be playing one of the famous fictional workers hired to run the titular chocolatier’s factory.
Now, fans have been given a “hilarious” teaser of what to expect in the Timothée Chalamet-led prequel to Roald Dahl’s famous 1964 children’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which spawned a 1971 film adaptation starring Gene Wilder.
In the photo shared with People, Grant’s miniature-sized Oompa-Loompa is shown trapped under a glass jar as Chalamet’s Wonka looks at him in awe.
Several fans reacted to the picture in hysterics, with one tweeting that “Ooma Loompa Hugh Grant is gonna be so f***ing funny to see in Wonka”.
“That is f***ing hilarious,” a second commented. “The fact he stuck the Oompa Loompa in a glass jar prison.”
“Someone somewhere should have stopped this from happening,” a third joked. “We can not, for the love of god, put an Oompa Loompa in a jar and post that on the internet.”
Another wrote: “If you were to tell me 5 years ago that Hugh Grant was playing an Oompa Loompa I would’ve thought you were insane.”
In the official trailer, released shortly after, Grant’s Oompa-Loompa defends his “little” stature, telling Wonka: “I will have you know that I am a perfectly respectable size for an Oompa-Loompa.”
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Oompa-Loompas were originally depicted as African pygmies in Dahl’s novel – an offensive element that was later changed for the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Director Mel Stuart made the decision to have the Oompa-Loompas a distinctive shade of orange with bright green hair and white eyebrows, which is how they’ve been portrayed ever since.
Wonka, directed by Paul King, will tell the origin story of how the chocolatier came to meet the Oompa-Loompas on one of his earliest adventures.
It also stars Olivia Coleman, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key and Sally Hawkins.
Wonka will be released in cinemas on 15 December.
