Del Toro defends Iñárritu's Digger as a theatrical experience

Guillermo del Toro has backed Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger and dismissed an IGN review headline as an “Entirely Petty headline,” as reported by Deadline on 3 October 2026.

The comments came in a post on del Toro’s @RealGDT account on 1 October. He called the Warner Bros. release “Decidedly a theatrical experience.” He wants it seen on a big screen.

In the same post, del Toro said the film “delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level” and described it as “daring, bold and cinematically complex,” according to Deadline. The praise was directed at a fellow Oscar-winning Mexican film-maker whose new film has divided critics.

Digger stars Tom Cruise as oil tycoon Digger Rockwell. Rockwell races to contain a catastrophe he caused, hoping to dodge blame and recast himself as humanity’s saviour. Warner Bros. has sold the film in theatres with the tagline “Control the narrative. Tom Cruise is DIGGER,” as listed by Warner Bros. Philippines.

The defence landed after a run of mixed notices. IGN called the film “far from a must-watch” and advised readers to wait for streaming. The film holds a 51% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the site that aggregates the share of critics giving a positive review, and a C+ CinemaScore, the grade drawn from polls of opening-night cinemagoers, according to Deadline.

Del Toro placed that response in a longer history. He compared the early reaction to Digger to the initial critical reception for The King of Comedy (1982), The Big Lebowski (1998) and The Counselor (2013).

The film is an offbeat satire, a comedy that mocks power to make a point, pairing actor-producer Cruise with an Oscar-winning director, as described by Yahoo on 29 September. It has been discussed as Cruise’s first original movie in years, with co-star Riz Ahmed earlier telling Collider that it would be a unique cinematic experience.

For cinemagoers, this means a familiar choice. Wait for streaming, or book a theatre seat.