Not to be confused with 1973’s “The Wicker Man” (or Nicolas Cage’s meme-worthy 2006 remake), 2026’s “Wicker” is about a man made of wicker in the most literal sense—seriously. While many have compared the film’s premise to a real-life “30 Rock” bit, it also has TikTokers looking at their patio furniture in a whole new light after viewing that trailer. Directed and adapted by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who wrote the script alongside Ursula Wills-Jones, the film—which stars Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, and Elizabeth Debicki—is set for wide theatrical release on October 30, “weaving” us in a state of mounting anticipation until then.
If you are interested in learning more about how “Wicker” came to life, look no further. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming film.
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Based on “The Wicker Husband,” a short story by Wills-Jones, “Wicker” follows the Fisherwoman (Colman) who, by societal standards, isn’t that attractive. She smells, of course, and the townspeople constantly harp on her singledom. To counter their spinster accusations, the Fisherwoman commissions the Basket Weaver (Dinklage) to fashion her a husband made of—you guessed it—wicker. Pure of intention and pure of heart, the Wicker Husband is loyal and dedicated to his wife, creating a whole new breed of buzz among the townspeople as they suddenly find themselves jealous of this unconventional yet sweet relationship. With comparisons to “Pinocchio,” another guy brought to life from an unlikely material, there’s no doubt the film will leave you agreeing that he’s a real man.
Although none of the characters have traditional names, identifying them by profession appears to be a stylistic choice carried over from the short story. Here’s who will star in the film and their roles as we know them thus far:
- Olivia Colman as the Fisherwoman
- Alexander Skarsgård as the Wicker Husband
- Peter Dinklage as the Basket Weaver
- Elizabeth Debicki as the Tailor's Wife
- Marli Siu as the Tailor's Wife's sister
- Nabhaan Rizwan as the Tailor
- Richard E. Grant as the Village Doctor
- Ben Ashenden as the Baker
- Scott Alexander Young as the Shoemaker
- Anders Olof Grundberg as the Teenage Boy
Daniel Bullus, Ella Bruccoleri, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Gustav Lindh, and Emily Lloyd Saini are also listed in the cast, but their roles are currently unknown.
Kharmel Cochrane (“Nosferatu,” “Saltburn”) of Kharmel Cochrane Casting, Gréti Fellner and Adél Csemez (“Nuremberg,” “To Russia with Love”) assembled the star-studded “Wicker” cast.
In keeping with the film’s offbeat concept, Cochrane takes her own unique approach to casting. “I will always do the opposite of what I’m asked to do!” Cochrane told us. “I’ll always throw in some completely bonkers wild cards. Every single job, I will try and throw at least one curveball, if not 10. I’m just really interested in watching people do things that they’re not necessarily known for, or seeing people do things that are unexpected.”
When Deadline asked Colman why she’d been drawn to the Fisherwoman, the star immediately zeroed in on the script. “I just really loved the script. I think it’s in my top three favorite scripts I’ve ever read, and I just wanted to play her, and that’s all there is to it,” she shared. “I thought this would be a beautiful film. I wanted to be in it, and that was it.”
Skarsgård, however, was intimidated. “I knew I wanted to do it, and I was incredibly excited about playing this character, but he has a purity that scared me,” he said. “I often gravitate towards conflicted characters, characters where there’s a darkness, or an internal struggle, or some kind of weird dichotomy of friction. And there’s a lot of friction in the movie, but none of it comes from the wicker husband. He is just pure—not naive—he’s just there. He loves his wife, and it’s just happy and sweet. So that scared me a bit.”
Fischer and Wilson’s decision to fashion a real wicker suit likely added to Skarsgård’s anxiety (and theirs). But there was simply no other way to bring their vision to life. “It would be weird to have a love story with just Olivia Colman and a CG guy with tennis balls. No matter how good it looked, it wouldn’t be real. We knew it had to be real the whole time,” Fischer told TheWrap.
Working with Wētā Workshop of New Zealand, the directors tailored the wicker suit to Skarsgård’s every movement—even his facial expressions. Fischer, Wilson, and Skarsgård then had a 10-minute private rehearsal to see how it all worked. “We sort of cleared everyone out of the room during this test shoot, and we had just 10 minutes, just the three of us. We had him read some poems, just to, you know, do some stuff. There’s no footage of that little private thing, but it was wonderful,” Wilson told TheWrap.
“Alex’s performance, while incredibly nuanced and understated, was very technically and physically challenging, and it’s really the marriage of the prosthetic and the performance that sells the whole thing,” Fischer and Wilson told Entertainment Weekly. “Once he was walking and talking as the Wicker Husband, we knew the spectacle, the romance, the whole heart of the movie was in safe hands.”
Dinklage told IndieWire, “It just reminded me of when I was a kid and seeing C3PO for the first time. You don’t question ‘What is that? How did that come to be?’ You just accept it. And Alex and Eleanor have done the same thing. They’ve created a world, and when you’re in trusted hands like that, you go anywhere and you believe anything. A man made of wicker? OK, I’m on that course with you! And that’s the real beauty of great cinema.”
“It had this kind of magic to it. It feels like a fairy tale, but it also has this gritty reality in terms of the politics of the place,” Debicki added. “It is a study of patriarchy in this magic, real world. The world was incredibly built by our wonderful crew. Everything was just realized with such detail and so much imagination…it was a gift.”
While “Wicker” has obviously wrapped filming, there are plenty of romance and fantasy projects casting at any given time. In fact, these fantasy gigs are casting right now.
If you are interested in pursuing more traditional period pieces—not every film can feature a wicker husband, after all—these guides will help you prepare for your next opportunity:
When speaking to students at Bennington College, Dinklage offered profound life advice based on his own experiences. The former “Game of Thrones” actor noted how he spent years at his dead-end job before finally working up the courage to pursue his acting dreams, inspiring these universal words of wisdom: “Don’t search for defining moments because they will never come…” Dinklage said. “Don’t wait until they tell you, you are ready. Get in there. The world might say you are not allowed to yet. I waited a long time…before I gave myself permission to fail. Don’t even bother asking. Don’t even bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it.”
Of course, trying begets potential failure, but you can’t allow a no to derail your pursuit of a yes. Skarsgård told Club 30 Podcast that, although he went on countless auditions that didn’t result in a role, he held onto the callbacks that indicated he was getting closer to his dreams. “There were a couple of occasions where at least you got the carrot. Even if you didn’t book the job, you were close. And that gave me a little bit of momentum where it’s like, you got close,” he said. “You went in for a couple of callbacks and then you didn’t get it, but you still, like, you felt it. You’re like, all right, that gave me a little steam to kind of keep going.”
Colman noted that kindness, in particular, will widen your prospects over time. “There’s some amazing actors who don’t get asked back because they don’t behave very nicely,” Colman said. “Learn your lines, try and know everyone’s name, be on time… There’s a million people who would have your job in a second and…who are better than you. Take your job seriously and not yourself.”
She continued: “We all have actor stories of people who were unpleasant, unkind, ungenerous—and it goes around. If you get accolades for something, enjoy it for a bit, but put it aside and pretend that hasn’t happened a week later. You still need to work, and no one else will remember it either after a week.”
But if you’re preparing for a high-stakes audition that has your nerves on high alert, Debicki recommends planning some sort of activity immediately after your audition to help you recalibrate and get your mind off the pressure that comes with the profession. “The more you invest in something, the more you’re left feeling like you’re just hanging off a cliff. And the more you care, obviously, the more emotional it is. I don’t think you can avoid that. I don’t think you’d want to avoid that roller coaster because then you’d sort of have tapped out somewhere,” she told the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. “But I think it’s good to have a plan afterward.”
