The world has been going weak at the knees for a ligneous Alexander Skarsgård since Black Bear Pictures dropped the trailer for Wicker. What looks set to be one of 2026's most talked-about and lusted-over movies sees Olivia Colman commission a basketmaker to weave her a husband out of wicker,
What she gets is Skarsgård with the stamina of an oak, and the envy of all the other women in the village. People in the real world are swooning too, and wondering where they can get themselves their own piece of living, breathing, bed-shaking outdoor furniture. The good news is that the wicker husband is almost all real (quick tip: you might want to see our guide to the best 3D printers if you want to make your own woody companion).
Many movies rely on CGI to create fantastical character designs, but Wicker's directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson are reported to have decided early on that it wouldn't be possible to make the film's hunky basket fully digital.
They brought in Wētā Workshop, the New Zealand-based special effects and props studio that's worked on movies from Lord of the Rings to Avatar. The team decided to use a practical suit, but that meant overcoming a technical challenge.
Making a 100% wicker man would be technically impossible. According to Tech Times wicker weaving produces what mathematicians call "ruled surfaces". That is, surfaces generated by straight lines. Human bodies have parts that no arrangement of straight lines can generate.
Wētā solved this with a three-layer process. First, they created a 3D-printed prosthetic shell, which was shaped to fit Skarsgård’s body. After that, real wicker work was applied over the surface of the shell.
Finally, relatively minor CGI compositing was added, such as points of light shining through the gaps in the weave, to make it look like the wicket body was hollow (also see how FutureWorks made the Ghoul's nose in Fallout). Some effective sound design provided the final element to complete the illusion.
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We've seen some great CGI movie moments, but in this case the restrained use of CG helps make the character feel so real and so... physical. That was intended to have benefits for the actors on set too, since they could interact more naturally in the character's presence.
Wicker is based on a short story called The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills-Jones. The movie will be released in the US from 23 October and will expand to the UK on 30 October. Release dates in Australia and New Zealand are set for 26 November and 7 January.
