A trailer for the upcoming film Wicker has gone viral, and the reason is exactly what you think it is: Alexander Skarsgård wearing a wicker penis.

The official trailer dropped on Thursday, 30 July, posted to YouTube under the title "WICKER | Official Trailer | Only In Theaters October" (YouTube). An Instagram release followed the next day (Instagram). By the weekend, the internet had done what the internet does. A Fandango post featuring the trailer surpassed 11 million views on TikTok, and the clip sparked a social-media frenzy that The Hollywood Reporter, The Cut, Entertainment Weekly, and Pedestrian.tv all picked up (The Hollywood Reporter; The Cut; Pedestrian.tv).

The film itself is a dark fairy tale. Olivia Colman plays a fisherwoman, ostracised by her community, who commissions the local basketmaker — Peter Dinklage — to weave her a husband from wicker. That husband is Alexander Skarsgård, or rather a man crafted entirely from woven reeds. The trailer describes the film as "the wholly original love story" of that commission (YouTube). The Cut noted that the trailer opens with Colman's character being intimate with her well-endowed wicker husband (The Cut). Entertainment Zero focused its coverage on Skarsgård's appearance — wicker nipples and all (Entertainment Weekly).

Wicker is based on "The Wicker Husband," a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones, and is produced by Black Bear (The Hollywood Reporter). Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson directed. The cast also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Ella Bruccoleri, and Richard E. Grant. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier in 2026 before landing its autumn release date.

Skarsgård, a Golden Globe-winning actor, is virtually unrecognisable under the wicker prosthetics that cover his entire body (Oregon Live). The costume work is doing the heavy lifting here — and the internet noticed.

The rollout is staggered. The Instagram account for the film states it plays in select theatres beginning 23 October before expanding to a wide release on 30 October (Instagram; The Hollywood Reporter). That puts Wicker squarely in the Halloween corridor, when studios tend to slot films with a strong hook and an even stronger visual identity. A wicker man with anatomical detail certainly qualifies.

For a film that premiered at Sundance to a festival crowd, the trailer has already done something a lot of bigger-budget releases spend millions trying to engineer: it cut through. Whether that curiosity converts to ticket sales in late October is a question for the opening-weekend ledger.