Wicker Man director's sons complete their late father's film trilogy

What the report says

BBC World News reports that Robin Hardy’s sons, Justin and Dominic, have finished the long-promised third film in their father’s Wicker Man trilogy, decades after the 1973 cult horror movie first launched the project. The final instalment, Wrath of the Gods, is set to premiere at London’s FrightFest festival, bringing a form of closure to a family story that has stretched across more than 50 years.

According to the BBC, the project moved forward after the brothers found a forgotten family archive containing letters, scripts and storyboards linked to Robin Hardy and The Wicker Man. That material included a draft for the unfinished third film, which helped them develop a new version of the story. Justin Hardy, an Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated director, worked with Dominic on the film before his death at 61 last month.

The BBC says filming took place in Shetland in spring 2025, with local actors and crew joining the production alongside lead performers Francis Magee and Christiane Schaldemose. The new film draws on Norse and Shetland-inspired themes, continuing the eerie folk-horror atmosphere associated with the original. Its release is especially significant for the Hardy family because The Wicker Man was both creatively important and personally difficult, leaving lasting financial and emotional consequences for Robin Hardy’s first family.

For the family, the finished film is being presented as both a tribute and a farewell, linking Robin Hardy, his sons and their late mother Caroline, to the legacy of a cult British film that grew far beyond its troubled beginnings.