The actor's high school musical clips landed him the job
With the first trailer for 'Wonka' landing last week - the origin story of Willy Wonka and how he became the enigmatic chocolate mogul that features in Roald Dahl's books - excitement is building around the film.
When it was first revealed that Timothée Chalamet was taking on the role made famous by Gene Wilder (and later, by Johnny Depp), a lot of eyebrows were raised.
However, the trailer will help to sway any doubters as it looks like Chalamet has the qualities required of playing such an iconic character - so much so that the film's director Paul King revealed that he didn't even have to audition for the part.
He told Rolling Stone that the 27-year-old actor was the only person he wanted for the role - and that he was confident that he could pull it off, because he'd seen old footage of Chalamet in high school musicals on YouTube.
"It was a straight offer because he’s great and he was the only person in my mind who could do it," said King. "“But because he’s Timothée Chalamet and his life is so absurd, his high school musical performances are on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of views. So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well."
He added: "When I spoke to him, he was quite keen. He’d done tap dancing in high school and he was like, ‘I’d quite like to show people I can do that."
The film - which also has an Irish connection due to The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon contributing several original songs to the soundtrack - hits cinemas in December.