Hugh Grant Plays an Oompa Loompa in the Willy Wonka Prequel

It was revealed during the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon 2023 that Hugh Grant plays an Oompa Loompa in the upcoming prequel film Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role.

Grant’s casting was first rumored by The Daily Mail back in February 2022.

In the footage screened exclusively for CinemaCon attendees, Grant’s orange-hued face appears on a CGI Oompa Loompa. His diminutive character — “a perfectly respectable size,” Grant’s character says — is sassy so he may likely prove to be a scene-stealer in the film. He looks like Oompa Loomps from the 1971 film. Wonka reunites Hugh Grant with filmmaker Paul King, who directed him in Paddington 2. Grant most recently appeared in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Based on characters by Roald Dahl, Wonka takes place before the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Warner Bros. has previously described Wonka as “an origin story that explores the vivid, mythical beginnings of the imaginative young inventor before he becomes the renowned scrumdiddlyumptious Mozart of chocolate.”

The Oompa Loompas have been controversial in the past. In his 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dahl wrote that they hailed from the jungles of from Africa, and illustrator Joseph Schindelman depicted them as African Pygmies. Dahl later changed the Oompa Loompas to bei white-skinned after the NAACP raised concerns about slavery overtones (the Oompa Loompas were imported from their homeland to work in Wonka’s chocolate factory). 

The 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory cast actors with dwarfism to play the Oompa Loompas, who in the film have green hair and orange skin. Deep Roy portrayed the Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton’s 2005 film adaptation. Wonka’s Oompa Loompas being tiny CGI versions of Hugh Grant would appear to be the filmmakers’ attempt to avoid any controversy or potential offense.

Wonka is a period musical featuring original songs written by Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy. The screenplay is by Paul King and Paddington 2’s Simon Farnaby, while the film’s producers are David Heyman, Luke Kelly, and Alexandra Derbyshire.

In addition to Chalamet and Grant, the cast includes 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.

Wonka opens in theaters on December 15, 2023.