Alexander Skarsgård is playing a man made of actual wicker, and somehow, the internet has decided this is peak fantasy boyfriend energy.

According to Rolling Stone, the trailer for Black Bear's Wicker, in which Skarsgård portrays a husband literally crafted from wicker by a basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) for a lonely fisherwoman (Olivia Colman), has racked up 14 million views on Fandango's TikTok account alone. The film premiered at Sundance earlier this year, but the public trailer drop has unleashed chaos on the platform, with fans fixating on the film's bizarre premise and the practical question of how one would actually... well, consummate a marriage with a wicker husband.

Users are flooding the comments with videos imagining "how I'll be pulling up to Wicker" when it hits theaters, while others joke about wicker splinters in unfortunate places. Even the official 4DX TikTok account joined the conversation after fans began demanding a 4DX release for maximum sensory chaos.

The "book boyfriend" trend has fractured what audiences find attractive. It is no longer about conventionally handsome love interests, it is about the weird, the mythical, and the morally gray. BookTok has elevated faerie kings, dragon riders, and complicated anti-heroes into cult status. A sentient wicker man is simply the logical endpoint of that evolution.

This signals something real about how indie and genre films are discovered and amplified now. A Sundance premiere with an A-list Nordic actor and a bonkers premise does not need a massive studio marketing budget to go viral. It needs TikTok users with specific fantasies and a willingness to be chaotic about them. The Wicker trailer has become a cultural moment because it is absurd enough to demand conversation, and the film's earnest tone gives audiences permission to be unironic about their interest.

Rolling Stone's recommendation to pair the film hype with romantasy books like A Court of Thorns and Roses is smart positioning. It feeds the same appetite that is making Skarsgård's wicker husband trend. For anyone waiting for the theatrical release, this fanbase will consume literally any story about a mysterious, otherworldly man in a romantic scenario. A literal wicker guy? They are already sold.

The question: How long until other indie films start casting bizarre supernatural love interests specifically to court BookTok?