Olivia Colman's 'Wicker' sparks unprecedented viral frenzy with Skarsgård's costume

Olivia Colman stood at the London Film Festival premiere of her new film and found herself genuinely bewildered. The social media response to Wicker had been unlike anything in her career—memes flooding platforms, steamy jokes multiplying by the hour, strangers on the internet openly fascinated by a costume. "No, literally this has never happened for anything I've done before," she told the BBC. "But you put Alexander Skarsgård in an interesting outfit, and everyone is looking."

The film itself is a strange thing: a medieval-set romantic comedy about a lonely, mocked fisherwoman who decides to solve her isolation problem by hiring a basketmaker to construct her a partner entirely from wicker. Skarsgård plays this wicker husband—a life-size piece of furniture who somehow becomes a devoted, passionate lover, sparking jealousy among the village women. It's the kind of premise that sounds like a joke until you realize someone actually made it into a feature film with an A-list cast. Peter Dinklage appears as the basketmaker, Elizabeth Debicki as the tailor's wife, and Richard E Grant as the village doctor.

Since the trailer dropped, the internet has been in a particular kind of frenzy. BookTok and FilmTok audiences have been swooning over Skarsgård's character. People have genuinely asked about splinter risks during the film's intimate scenes. Ikea, the Swedish furniture company, posted photos of its rattan pieces on Instagram with the caption "husband material"—a corporate nod to the cultural moment the film has somehow created.

When asked to explain the fascination, Colman pointed to something simpler than the absurdity of the premise. "We all love a little bit of escapism. That's what film is beautiful for," she said. "And it's magical, and a bit of fantasy, and people love that, especially currently." She also credited the script itself—it felt genuinely original in a way that most of the material that crosses her desk does not. Debicki, her co-star, was more direct: "I think it was a lot to do with Alex in a wicker man costume, really. I think that's something that apparently everybody would like to see."

Skarsgård himself deflected the attention toward the costume designers, saying he simply "got stuck into it." He described the sex scenes as "super fun" to shoot, particularly the moments where the bed crashes and breaks—comedic beats that the characters themselves comment on within the scene. But there's also tenderness there, he noted, and genuine romantic chemistry.

The film is adapted from a short story called The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills-Jones. It premiered at Sundance earlier in 2026, where critical reception was mixed. The Guardian gave it two stars, praising the "eye-catching premise" but suggesting there was "too much wood but not enough fire." The Hollywood Reporter was warmer, calling it "a warming, sometimes poignant pleasure."

Beyond the memes and the viral moment, the film's cast insists there's substance underneath. Debicki called it "very funny and strange and wonderful" but also "very moving"—something worth discovering past the Ikea jokes. Skarsgård noted that it touches on hierarchy and social structure, "done with such a light touch." Colman framed it as a film about love and romance that gently interrogates the traditions we've built around marriage and community. "I think it's something that you will come out and discuss a lot," she said.

Wicker arrives in UK cinemas on October 30. Whether the viral moment translates into sustained audience interest, or whether the film becomes a footnote in the history of internet culture, remains to be seen.