Alexander Skarsgård has a softer sequel in mind for Wicker. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in an interview published November 11, he jokingly named his imagined follow-up Corduroy.
He claimed he was pitching the idea around Hollywood but having trouble finding financing.
His proposed leading man would be made from the ribbed fabric, with a personality to match: “delicate and soft” and an “attentive lover.”
The joke follows the online attention surrounding his woven character, with fans posing beside promotional displays and reportedly trying to take them home.
Skarsgård Had Already Chosen Corduroy for His Ideal Partner
In an October 29 interview with journalist Janet Susan R. Nepales for Asian Journal, Skarsgård and Olivia Colman were asked what they would choose if they could create partners from any material. He immediately chose the same fabric.
He also wanted his creation to have a sense of humor, a quality he saw in the Wicker Husband. Colman warmed to the suggestion, imagining how comfortable the material might be to cuddle.
She had one reservation: it might be too soft. Her own ideal partner would be funny, enjoy talking and listening, and make pleasant company while they worked side by side.
Olivia Colman’s Fisherwoman Orders a Husband of Her Own
Now in theaters through Black Bear, Wicker follows Colman’s Fisherwoman, who lives on the edge of a seaside village and endures ridicule from her neighbors. She asks the Basketmaker, played by Peter Dinklage, to build her a husband.
Skarsgård’s creation treats her with a devotion that provokes jealousy and outrage among the townspeople. Elizabeth Debicki plays the Tailor’s Wife, one of the villagers drawn into the turmoil surrounding the marriage. Skarsgård told Nepales that playing someone so innocent appealed to him after darker roles in Pillion, The Northman and Succession.
Married filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson wrote and directed the film, adapting Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story The Wicker Husband. Colman described the Fisherwoman as self-sufficient and comfortable alone, with her own work and income. Falling in love comes as a surprise to her.
Wētā Workshop Combined Basketmaking With Digital Design
New Zealand’s Wētā Workshop built the costume and facial prosthetics, with Joe Dunckley designing the makeup and Sarah Rubano leading its application. Most shots used that physical creation with minimal or no computer-generated effects. Selected finishing touches included light shining through the weave to suggest a hollow body.
Development took about 18 months. As Dunckley and Rubano explained to The World of Interiors, the team needed individual strands that could move with Skarsgård’s face. Traditional molding methods struggled with the complex geometry, so weavers worked alongside digital sculptors to develop designs that could be 3D-printed.
Master weaver Jasmin van Lith produced physical samples and helped the digital team preserve believable basketmaking techniques. Dunckley said the design also had to reflect the fictional Basketmaker’s expertise, looking like the work of someone who had studied weaving traditions from different cultures. The resulting makeup had to hold its shape while allowing emotions to remain visible, including sadness, affection and jealousy.
Lunch Breaks Required Removing Parts of His Makeup
According to Allure, the transformation involved around 50 interlocking body pieces and 10 facial appliances. The team eventually reduced daily application to about 90 minutes. Muka, a fiber extracted from New Zealand flax, supplied the hair, beard and eyelashes.
Eating required its own routine. Artists removed his lip pieces and eyelashes during breaks and put a protective bib over his wicker beard. The arrangement let him have lunch while preserving much of the makeup for the afternoon.
Skarsgård told Nepales that the suit’s rigidity affected his movement, while Colman valued having a physical character she could touch. Rubano told The World of Interiors that a small onscreen smirk sometimes required him to smile broadly underneath the prosthetics.