You only have to look at the vast array of romantasy books releasing every month to see tastes have changed—or maybe “expanded” is a better word—in recent years. Vampires (and the very occasional beast or fish man) are no longer the only monsters allowed to be romantic leads. We now have sexy minotaurs, orcs, werewolves, shoggoths, you name it, and these characters can be as mainstream as they want to be. So it’s perfect timing for Wicker, starring Alexander Skarsgård (who’s already played a hot vampire) as a woven dreamboat, to set imaginations aflame.
And that’s exactly what happened when the first trailer for Wicker hit the internet, revealing exactly how much joy Skarsgård’s husband character will bring to the lonely woman who requests his creation, played by Olivia Colman. It instantly sparked “where can I get one for myself?” levels of longing among viewers.
“He’s not the monster; he’s the romantic lead,” Wicker co-director Eleanor Wilson emphasized in a new Empire profile. “We knew that people would be excited when they got to see him because we knew we had this special thing, but no one could’ve predicted this response.”
Wicker is set in a medieval village, complete with a resident basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) capable of weaving live-sized wonders. But despite the movie taking place in the past, Wilson’s co-director Alex Huston Fischer thinks right now is actually the perfect time for a movie about an alluring wicker man.
“The fact that people felt so confident to vocalize their desire for this character—I think [it’s] something that’s more specific to our time now than it would have been 10 years ago. People are ready for this kind of thing.”
Wicker also stars Elizabeth Debicki and Richard E. Grant. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and arrives in theaters on October 23, with a wider expansion starting on October 30.
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