Digger reportedly not a musical, just weirdly marketed

Variety reports that sources inside the production confirm Digger is not a musical. It turns out—and this isn’t a direct quote from Variety and is pure speculation—that Digger is simply a lavish satire with weird marketing. The sets, stunts, and sky-high performances teased in the film’s trailers are reflective of Digger’s reported $125 million budget. 

The “Digger is a secret musical” theory had been slowly picking up steam on X, the Everything App, where users have been postulating about Digger’s song-and-dance secret since at least July. However, the idea broke containment when John Dies At The End author Jason Pargin X’d, “My favorite conspiracy theory right now is that Digger is secretly a musical and they’re desperately trying to hide it in the marketing.” Pargin elaborated in an Instagram video, comparing the admittedly strange Digger marketing to the sleight-of-hand Warner Bros. played with Wonka in 2023. 

The crux of the confusion isn’t immediately obvious. Believers say the so-called musical’s tell is a quick shot in the trailer of Digger doing his Matt Foley stance on a rotating platform, which signals musicality. But, to Pargin’s point, it also fits a recent Hollywood trend of withholding evidence of musical performances from trailers. That was the case with Wonka and even the musical remake of Mean Girls, itself based on a Broadway musical. 

We’ll know for sure what the hell Digger is when it opens on October 2.