We’ve been getting heaps of behind-the-scenes leaked footage and images for the upcoming Elden Ring movie directed by Alex Garland, who last time we checked was on his seventh playthrough. We’ve seen stills of the sets, an image of Marika with not one, but two braids? Interesting.

But the biggest news we’ve had so far is undoubtedly the 37 seconds of footage depicting none other than the Loathsome Dung Eater hanging from the stocks in what looks to be a town square while getting pummelled with rotten food by angry onlookers. That’s it. It’s quite literally just 37 seconds of people hurling food at the poor sod and screaming from the top of their lungs.

In the game, Dung Eater gets hanged in front of a crowd at Leyndell, the royal capital, during the introductory cutscene. But again, if it’s anything like the game, this won’t be the last we see of him as you can find his apparition in one of the backrooms of the Roundtable Hold and his real body beneath Leyndell in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds where he was jailed among other noble Omen, (those horned dudes no one seems to like, sorry Morgott).

But why was he hanged? Well the Dung Eater may be iconic among Elden Ring fans, but he’s not a very nice fellow. Before his hanging, he was a Tarnished who murdered and defiled victims with the seedbed curse, severing their connection to the Erdtree and cursing them to come back as Omen.

But who knows what shape the film will take or how closely it will coincide with the narrative from the games. While it may not follow how the game plays out (imagine it just being a 60-hour silent playthrough), I do reckon there won’t be any changes to the canon, what with Garland clearly being such a huge fan.

So far, the mood of fans after seeing the Dung Eater clip seems to just be elated. The comments under the leaked footage are full of people praising the legendary “Pee-Pee Poo-Poo man” or the “Darstardly Doo-doo Devourer”, all fond nicknames. While others take it more seriously: “Amazing shot! Can’t wait to see this all coming together”, before someone else brings it back down to earth: “If they actually say ‘The Loathsome Dung Eater’ in this movie it’s going to be my personal Chicken Jockey.”

I hadn’t actually thought of this, but there are a lot of opportunities to send cinemas into the same chaotic haze the Minecraft movie did if Garland plays his cards right. The Loathsome Dung Eater is just one example of this; others include the Radahn Festival, “Bear Witness”, or quite literally anything written on Scriptstones, whether that be “Fort, night”, “Try finger, but hole”, or just “Dog”. I’m definitely going to watch the Elden Ring movie, though. I’ll just need to mentally prepare myself for another Chicken Jockey moment.