Theaters Beware: ‘Wicker’ Fans Are Plotting to Steal the Wicker Husband Standee

Few movies arrive in theaters with as much pre-release chatter as ‘Wicker‘. It premiered at Sundance in January to a double standing ovation, then returned to the spotlight months later when its debut trailer set social media on fire.

The film is based on Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story ‘The Wicker Husband’, and it centers on a fisherwoman who lives on the fringes of a seaside village, single and constantly mocked. Fed up with her neighbors, she commissions the local basket weaver to build her a husband out of wicker. Olivia Colman plays the fisherwoman, Peter Dinklage is the basket weaver, and Alexander Skarsgård is the husband himself.

Now the ‘Wicker’ standee has become the internet’s latest obsession. Ahead of the film’s October 23 release, TikTok clips are showing moviegoers jokingly “stealing” the life-size promotional cutout of the Wicker Husband from theater lobbies.

The standee shows the bearded Wicker Husband in a woven, textured torso, with the film’s title and release date at his feet. In one viral clip, a viewer eyes the display and announces that it’s coming home with them. In another, the caption frames the idea as a point-of-view scenario for anyone who needs their own wicker man.

To be clear, the videos read as jokes rather than proof of a theft spree, and nothing suggests theaters are reporting a wave of missing displays. But the gag fits a pattern, because the movie’s online fanbase has been making the same kind of jokes for months.

Moviegoers are “stealing” the ‘Wicker’ promotional standee ahead of the film’s release October 23. The movie follows an ostracized fisherwoman who develops a relationship with a man made out of wicker. https://t.co/VNkcCBF2Kn
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 19, 2026

When the first trailer dropped, social media responded with a mix of shock, thirst and comedy. Some commenters compared the premise to an adult version of ‘Pinocchio’, while others fretted over the practical logistics of a wicker husband. Viewers also turned the trailer into a meme format of people watching it with mock horror.

Theaters joined in. Reel Cinemas posted that its ‘Wicker’ popcorn buckets had arrived, only to show an ordinary wicker basket filled with popcorn. Regal then made the joke real by releasing free 3D-print files for a headless woven-torso popcorn bucket on October 8, with a free small popcorn for anyone who brings a printed one to a screening.

The directors, who are also a married couple, have noted that the film took on a life of its own once the trailer arrived. They also admitted that they aren’t on TikTok, which makes the viral loop even funnier.

The standee works because the character looks real, and that’s no accident. Directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer decided early that the husband couldn’t be fully digital. Wētā Workshop built a wearable suit with a 3D-printed prosthetic shell shaped to Skarsgård’s body, genuine wicker weaving on top and minor CGI to make the character look hollow through the gaps.

Colman has joked about the result herself. She told TheWrap at Sundance, “When you’re face to face with the most beautiful creature made of wicker, it’s very easy to swoon.” After a few months of memes, plenty of moviegoers seem to agree.

The reviews have been largely warm, with the film holding a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes. A Screen Daily review praised it as a wickedly funny and delightfully romantic fable and singled out Colman’s performance as crucial to its success.

Not everyone was sold. The Guardian gave it 2 out of 5 and called it a tonally uneven mix of bawdy humor, dark fantasy and unlikely romance.

‘Wicker’ is rated R and opens in limited US theaters on October 23, then expands nationwide on October 30. That leaves a few more days for the standee to stay put, at least for those who can resist the temptation.

A hard man is good to find. Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, and Peter Dinklage star in #WICKER. Written for the Screen and Directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson. Only in theaters October. https://t.co/QMfDokKlOj
— Wicker Movie (@wickermovie) July 30, 2026