One of the aspects that really sold me on the first Wonka trailer has to be the fact that Hugh Grant being cast as an Oompa Loompa is an inspired exercise in comedy. That being said, it’s an idea so out of the box for the upcoming book adaptation that one has to wonder how co-writer/director Paul King even got the idea to do it. Apparently we can all thank author Roald Dahl himself, as when the Paddington director revisited the source material for Wonka, a very specific light bulb went off.
During his interview with Empire, King credited returning to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a huge part of why he re-teamed with his Paddington 2 villain. The prose of that 1964 book helped inspire this decision, courtesy of the following experience:
