Justin Hardy Dead at 61: 'The Wicker Man' Filmmaker Dies Just Weeks Before 'Wrath of the Gods' Premiere

Justin Hardy, tthe British filmmaker who completed Wrath of the Gods, the long-planned final chapter in The Wicker Man trilogy, has died aged 61 after a heart attack on Friday night, just weeks before the film's London premiere.

Hardy had recently finished work on Wrath of the Gods, billed as the concluding chapter of the Wicker Man trilogy that began with his father Robin Hardy's 1973 film and continued with The Wicker Tree in 2011. The new film is due to premiere at genre festival FrightFest in Leicester Square on 28 August.

In a statement, Hardy's family said they were 'devastated' by his sudden death and 'heartbroken' that he would not live to see the film open.

They described him as 'so full of life right to the end' and 'incredibly energised to be working towards premiering his latest film this month', calling him 'a man of family, of boundless creativity, and of devotion for everyone he held dear'.

He is survived by his wife Larissa and their four children, Sam, Ludo, Nico and Summer.

How Justin Hardy Reforged a Folk-Horror Landmark

The news follows a late-career burst of activity that saw Hardy step further into the legacy of his father's most famous work. In 2024 he and his brother Dominic released the documentary Children of the Wicker Man, examining both the enduring popularity of the original film and the toll its making took on their family.

The 1973 The Wicker Man, starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, follows a police sergeant sent to a remote Scottish island to investigate a missing girl, only to uncover a pagan community with its own rituals. It flopped on release but later acquired a cult following and is now regarded as one of Britain's defining horror films.

After Robin Hardy died in 2016 aged 86, his wish to complete a trilogy around the Wicker Man myth did not vanish with him. His sons were later approached about the dormant third film, which Dominic said became the 'impetus to close the chapter on the films'.

Wrath of the Gods grew out of material found in a script Robin Hardy had written years earlier. It stars Game of Thrones actor Francis Magee and Norwegian performer Christiane Schaerdemose, and was, according to Dominic, 'a great satisfaction' to Justin, who felt he had made something genuinely new rather than trading on nostalgia.

From The Bill to Wrath of the Gods

Hardy was a history graduate from Oxford University. He studied film in Bournemouth and scriptwriting in California before building a career in television and factual drama.

He directed episodes of The Bill and London's Burning, and developed a strong niche in historical reconstructions and documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and CNN, including Princes in the Tower, Trafalgar Battle Surgeon, The Relief of Belsen and Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen.

His work earned him nominations for both a Bafta and an Emmy.

Dominic said his brother had 'really became a filmmaker in his own right,' adding: 'We've lost him and we've lost that larger-than-life presence looking over us all.'

In recent years Hardy had also taught screenwriting at University College London, passing on his craft to a new generation of students.

Wrath of the Gods will now open without the filmmaker who led the effort to bring it to the screen, closing a family saga that extended far beyond a single film.