HOLLYWOOD — Fez has been dispensed.

After nearly a decade as the oddly-accented horndog of That ’70s Show, Wilmer Valderrama appears to have shed the tie-dyes and bell-bottoms.

Earlier this fall, he appeared as a Mexican immigrant in Richard Linklater’s scathing adaptation of best-selling Fast Food Nation. On Friday, he turns up in the kids’ comedy Unaccompanied Minors as an airport employee who befriends a motley group of adolescents stranded between flights at Christmastime.

Next year Valderrama has plans to make as many as three more films, including the long-gestating big-screen adaptation of the TV show CHIPS.

The 26-year-old actor admits the daunting workload is his way of ducking the fate that has befallen more than a few small-screen actors — namely forever being pigeonholed as the character that made them famous.

“Everyone worries about that,” he says.

“Everyone on a TV series worries about that, I think — especially when it’s been eight years and they rerun on every network and that’s all they see you are every single day. It’s difficult to have to re-educate the industry.”

Yet, he says, “Slowly but surely” he feels he has managed to wriggle free of Fez’s shackles.

“I’m being trusted with important roles. The beginning was really tough, though. But I also think (typecasting) happened more in the ’80s.”

No one will mistake Minors as high-minded art, but, besides being a big screen gig, the project also helped Valderrama deal with the separation anxiety he felt when his sitcom ended.

“Minors was the first job (after That ’70s Show wrap-ped),” he says.

“I looked at this ensemble cast and how they embraced each other and it helped me because I was like, ‘What am I going to do?’

“What made it great is that I became an older brother to them. They were like my little posse. We did everything together … It was my excuse to be a big kid again.”

While Fast Food Nation and Unaccompanied Minors appear to be highly contrasting films, Valderrama sees them “both rich in message and morals.

“As I was planning my departure from That ’70s Show, I wanted to do things far removed from Fez. But I wanted them to share the same point of views that I have myself. Fast Food Nation is really an important movie.

“Unaccompanied Minors was refreshing because I’d read a lot of comedies — obviously, I’m an easy comedy sell — and was waiting and waiting and when I read this script, it was a beautiful package.”

Besides which, Valderrama would clearly rather talk about his career than his personal life.

A recent article in Entertainment Weekly spills more ink on his choice of roles than his taste in women — a welcome turn of events considering Valderrama’s reputation as a player has garnered him almost as much attention as Fez.

For all his work, he still lacks a certified, franchise-friendly blockbuster on his resume.

Hence, CHIPS, in which Valderrama will don the helmet, sunglasses and leather motorcycle boots of California Highway Patrol officer Francis “Ponch” Poncherello, the role made famous by cheeseball Erik Estrada.

“The script is fantastic,” Valderrama enthuses. “We’re looking for a director and we’ll shoot it later next year … In my humble opinion, it is exactly what every remake should be because it respects the franchise … But it also allows us to have fun with it. There’s a serious storyline and a serious plot, but the characters are so colourful.”