Twitter Is Horrified & Amused By Hugh Grant Playing An Oompa Loompa In Wonka

Move over, Kim Kardashian, Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa has broken the internet. Grant stars as one of Willy Wonka’s faithful factory workers in Timotheé Chalamet’s highly anticipated Wonka prequel, and when fans got their first look at Grant in the film’s trailer on July 11, Twitter couldn’t stop laughing.

The new movie is set at the beginning of Wonka’s career, when his goal was simply to become “the greatest chocolatier” in the world, as Chalamet said at CinemaCon in May, as per Variety. Compared to Johnny Depp and Gene Wilder’s more jaded portrayals of the iconic character, Chalamet’s Wonka is “full of joy and hope” as he sets out to build his famous chocolate factory, defy gravity (literally) with his candies, and discovers the existence of Oompa Loompas — which is where Grant comes in.

The end of the trailer sees the British actor with green hair and orange skin, about to go into a song-and-dance routine that even Wonka doesn’t want to watch, and it must be seen to be believed. While previous Wonka movies have starred several Oompa Loompas, who even receive their own musical number, it’s not known how many of them will appear in the prequel.

The movie also stars Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, The White Lotus star Natasha Rothwell, Paddington actor Matt Lucas, and Rowan Atkinson. But the person who’s really catching everyone’s eye is Grant. Wonka director Paul King told Entertainment Weekly that Grant was a “bizarrely straightforward” choice for the character. “When I thought about their voice... it seemed this very sort of withering, sarcastic, scornful, quite pleased with themselves,” he said. “It sounds terrible, but Hugh’s voice just popped into my head... He took to it like a duck to water.”

Some parts of Twitter would disagree, as seeing Grant in Oompa Loompa form has caused every emotion from horror to intrigue to flat-out agony.

While some were scarred for life, others were amused by Grant’s transformation, asking if other actors could ever pull off being an Oompa-Loompa.

If you need to see more of Grant as you’ve never seen him before, Wonka hits theaters on Dec. 15.