Willy Wonka was Never the Hero and Timothee Chalamet’s Movie Also Knows That

Willy Wonka is one of the most beloved characters based on Roald Dahl’s children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has been portrayed many times on screen by various actors who have made the character iconic and hard to forget. Willy Wonka became a massive pop culture phenomenon after Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the character in the 2005 movie. Previously, Gene Wilder’s portrayal was also well-received and scenes from his version even became social media memes later on.

The latest feather in the hat of Willy Wonka is Timothee Chalamet, with his 2023 musical Wonka. The movie is supposed to give the backstory of Wonka and why he is such an eccentric, seemingly cold-hearted person later on. The movie is also supposed to humanize Wonka and unwrap the mystery around him. However, there is one detail in the movie that might suggest Willy Wonka is not the hero most people think he is. 

Timothee Chalamet’s movie Wonka suggests a sinister side to Willy Wonka’s character

At the end of Wonka, the protagonist offers a bar of Hover Chocs to Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber—three men who have been running the Chocolate Cartel and who have wronged him in more ways than one can count. They managed to ruin his store, turn the law system and police against him, and even keep his close friend Noodle away from her family. So, one cannot say that they did not deserve any punishment. However, it is the severity of the punishment that is being pondered here.

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Hover Chocs are meant to make the eater float around and at the end, they come back to the earth again. However, the ones that Wonka gave them are altered versions of Hover Chocs. Although he says that he “thinks” Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber will be back to the ground, he does not sound so sure. In the end, the movie wraps up abruptly without ever mentioning or confirming the safety of these three mischievous men. 

While many can agree that Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber are not the best people and deserve to be fiddled with a bit, they do not deserve to be dead by consuming the altered Hover Chocs. There is a great possibility that they floated to outer space, where they could not breathe anymore and died. It would make Wonka not an endearingly eccentric character but a villainous murderer who took justice into his own hands. 

Is Willy Wonka really evil?

Willy Wonka is a mischievous character, to say the least. Although it is revealed at the end of the Tim Burton movie that he is a lonely man who was just trying to save his life’s work by trying to find a successor who is not consumed by greed, there are many problematic sides to Willy Wonka that cannot be overlooked. 

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For starters, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), he does not even lift a finger to help the children when they get in danger. Sure, Violet snatching the candy from his hands probably could not have been helped but in other cases, he knowingly turns a blind eye. Even though the kids were greedy and not obedient, they were kids at the end of the day and did not deserve such harsh consequences that would probably land them in the hospital.

Another controversial aspect of Willy Wonka is his workforce, which consists of Oompa Loompas. The origins of Oompa Loompas in the last two movies were barely touched. In the book, it says that they hail from the dense jungles of Loompaland in Africa and they have a strong taste for cacao beans, which Wonka uses to his advantage and makes them work for him for meager payments of a few cacao beans.

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Many have criticized Dahl for a racist portrayal and compared the whole thing to slavery. The book basically preaches a “happy slave” narrative with singing, grinning black workers dressed in next to nothing but leaves, and working worse than manual labor. In a 1988 interview, Dahl opened up about it and admitted the racist undertones himself by saying:

“It didn’t occur to me that my depiction of the Oompa-Loompas was racist. But it did occur to the N.A.A.C.P. and others.”

(Via. New York Times)

Although in 2023 Wonka Hugh Grant’s Oompa Loompa was given a lot of agency, the original history behind it still does not sit well with the audience, and it does not portray Willy Wonka in a good light.

Timothee Chalamet’s Wonka was released on December 8, 2023, and can be viewed in theatres across the world now.