How Wrath Of The Gods Would Have Ended The Wicker Man Trilogy – Screen Rant

Here's how unmade sequel The Wrath Of The Gods would have closed out The Wicker Man trilogy. The Wicker Man followed a policeman named Howie who flies to a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl. Howie is a Christian and is disgusted to learn the island's inhabitants are pagans and as he searches for the missing girl, he fears they intend to sacrifice her in the titular effigy. The Wicker Man is considered one of the best British horror movies ever made and is remembered for its nightmarish ending where it's revealed Howie himself is the intended sacrifice. The late Christopher Lee also considered it the best movie he ever starred in.

Screenwriter Anthony Shaffer later penned a Wicker Man sequel dubbed The Loathsome Lambton Worm, where Howie(Edward Woodward,The Equalizer) is saved at the last moment by police. The script would have explained away the aging of the actors in the years that had passed by revealing their pagan god prematurely aged them as punishment for their failed sacrifice. Howie would have set out to bring Lee's Summerisle to justice, but along the way, he would have had to fight the titular dragon. The ending would have been equally as bleak, with Howie committing to a test that put his Christian faith against Summerisle's pagan god. He would have leaped from a cliff while tied to eagles with faith his god would save him - the camera would then pull back to reveal the islander's youth was restored, meaning the sacrifice was successful. This version ultimately didn't move ahead.

Related: Wicker Man & Midsommar: All Connections Between Movies

Of course, the movie was remade with 2006's The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage. This version became an instant camp classic for both its intentional and unintentional comedy, including Cage's infamous "Not the bees!" line reading. The Wicker Man director Robin Hardy originally announced a spiritual sequel to his 1973 movie with a project called The Riding Of The Laddie, which was set to reunite Lord Of The Rings co-stars Christopher Lee and Sean Astin, with a possible Ewan McGregor cameo. This version fell apart with Hardy turning the story into 2006 novel Cowboys For Christ, which followed two born again Christians travelling to Scotland to take part in a folk festival that again ends in human sacrifice.

The novel was eventually made as The Wicker Tree in 2011, which featured Lee in a cameo; while Hardy claimed his character was Summerisle, the actor himself refuted this. The Wicker Tree was largely considered a mess, however, though Hardy planned to round out his unofficial The Wicker Man trilogy with The Wrath Of The Gods. In 2015 the filmmaker launched an Indiegogo campaign for The Wrath Of The Gods, which involved a park themed around the Norse sagas, themed around the genesis of the gods, their battle with giants and the creation of the human race, touching on creation themes similar to Ridley Scott's Alien prequels.

The Wrath Of The Gods would revolve around a group of visitors to the park who have to deal with angry Viking descendants and the film was said to feature an ending that rivaled that of The Wicker Man. The Indiegogo campaign sought $210,000 to help build the theme park but it failed to reach its target. Robin Hardy later passed away in 2016 so The Wrath Of The Gods is unlikely to round out The Wicker Man trilogy. The influence of The Wicker Man lives on, however, as most recently seen in 2019's Midsommar.

Next: Midsommar Directors Cut: Every New Scene (& What They Mean)

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Its pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now thats out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if hed like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU - where Hawkeye is clearly the best character - to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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How Wrath Of The Gods Would Have Ended The Wicker Man Trilogy - Screen Rant

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