Wonka director Paul King has compared Timothée Chalamet’s singing voice to Bing Crosby’s.

The Dune actor has rarely shown off his vocal abilities in his roles to date, but according to King, fans will be impressed with his vocals.

“(Chalamet)’s got a beautiful singing voice. The person it reminded me of was Bing Crosby,” he told Total Film. “There’s quite a range, because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion and he can do it all… I’m going to sound like a crazed fan.”

Chalamet plays a younger version of Willy Wonka in the film, which follows Roald Dahl’s eccentric chocolatier as he attempts to open up his first confectioners.

Although the 27-year-old sings several musical numbers, like Gene Wilder in the original 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, King does not want to describe Wonka as a musical.

“The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and Roald Dahl always uses poetry,” King said. “But I didn’t want it to just become a musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical.”

Chalamet’s musical chops did not come as a complete surprise to the Paddington director as he had seen clips of the star singing during high school productions on YouTube.

“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,” he noted. “So I knew from stanning for Timmy Chalamet that he could sing and dance really well.”

Wonka is due to be released in December.

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