There are actors who play it safe, and then there is Alexander Skarsgård, who spent this week on a green carpet in Zurich promoting a film in which he is literally woven from straw. Wicker premiered at the Zurich Film Festival on September 28, and if the response there is anything like the film’s Sundance debut back in January, the 50-year-old Swede has another offbeat hit on his hands.
What on earth is “Wicker”?
The official synopsis reads like a dare: an ostracized fisherwoman, played by Olivia Colman, commissions a husband from the local basketmaker, played by Peter Dinklage. The wicker husband, played by Skarsgård, turns out more spectacular than she ever imagined, and his arrival sets off jealousy and upheaval across a deeply conservative village.
The film is directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones’s short story The Wicker Husband, and it has been described as an audacious comedic fable about sex, marriage, and social convention. Think Monty Python energy with genuinely raunchy undertones. It currently sits at 91 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviews from the Zurich screening kept singling Skarsgård out as the standout.
The casting history is a fun one. Dev Patel was originally attached to play the wicker husband when the project was announced in 2023. Skarsgård replaced him, which means at some point a director had to make the case that the part called for a six-foot-four Swedish man wrapped in basketry. Colman, for her part, has called it one of her three favorite screenplays ever.
The Zurich defense
The festival’s Monday-night screening gave the stars a chance to defend the film’s premise in person. Skarsgård said the film satirizes the patriarchy of the present day and the construct of marriage, and does it with humor. He also offered one of the best quotes of the festival circuit this year, joking in a statement about his wicker prosthetics: “Most male actors dream of playing Hamlet at some point in their career. I never did. My dream was always to have nipples made out of wicker. Thanks to our wonderful directors, Eleanor and Alex, and the brilliant artists at Weta in New Zealand, my dream has finally come true.”
Colman’s verdict on the marketing was blunter: the film sells itself on Skarsgård’s picture as a very sexy basket. Hard to argue.
The wider release is weeks away
Wicker, distributed by BlackBear Pictures, is scheduled for a select theatrical release on October 23, 2026, with a wider rollout on October 30. The 105-minute film was shot in Budapest, and the ensemble around Colman and Skarsgård includes Elizabeth Debicki, Richard E. Grant, Marli Siu, and Nabhaan Rizwan, with cinematography by Oscar winner Lol Crawley.
This is a strong year for the elder Skarsgård in other ways, too. His A24 film Pillion, in which he plays Ray, the enigmatic leader of a queer biker gang opposite Harry Melling, premiered at Cannes in 2025 and has since landed on HBO Max to a 99 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and four British Independent Film Awards. Between a biker gang leader and a man made of straw, he is building the strangest, bravest run of any actor his age.
Do not sleep on “Pillion”
If Wicker is the comedy showcase, Pillion is the proof that Skarsgård’s range has no ceiling. Harry Lighton’s A24 drama, based on Adam Mars-Jones’s novel Box Hill, cast him as Ray, the enigmatic leader of a queer biker gang who takes Harry Melling’s timid Colin as his submissive. It premiered at Cannes in 2025, holds a 99 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from nearly 200 reviews, and won four British Independent Film Awards including Best British Independent Film.
It is a daring performance in every sense, and it is now streaming on HBO Max. Watch the two films back to back, a leather-clad biker dominant and a man made of straw, and you start to understand what makes this actor special. He commits fully to the bit, whatever the bit is, and refuses to protect his own dignity. That is rarer than it sounds.
The prestige weirdness crown
The Swedish press loves to rank the Skarsgårds, but Alexander has carved out a lane none of them occupy. Stellan is the elder statesman, Bill is the horror chameleon, Gustaf owns television villains. Alexander is the one who won an Emmy for Big Little Lies, stole Succession, went full feral in The Northman, and then asked Weta to build him wicker nipples.
Stockholm should be proud. Nobody does prestige weirdness like Alexander Skarsgård.
