Have you seen the online theory that Digger, the highly anticipated Tom Cruise movie that comes out next month, is secretly a musical? It’s surprisingly common, as people point to supposed evidence from the trailers.
My favorite conspiracy theory right now is that Digger is secretly a musical and they’re desperately trying to hide it in the marketing pic.twitter.com/JORNZ0iqib
— Jason Pargin, author of John Dies at the End, etc (@JasonKPargin) September 10, 2026
One key piece of evidence comes from the trailer that was released Sept. 9, which shows a room full of people standing behind Cruise’s character who all seem to have their mouths open at one particular moment. The idea being that everyone is singing. But that theory seems to conveniently ignore all the other shots in that trailer where those same people don’t have their mouths open in unison.
It’s all a bit silly, of course, but that’s the way that online theories go sometimes. And we got confirmation from Variety on Friday that Digger is not a musical.
Variety says the news outlet talked with “two sources familiar with the production” who insist that Digger isn’t a musical but both were reportedly “amused by the sleuthing.”
Despite the news from Variety, not everyone is convinced, with one X user joking about the denial: “that’s exactly what I would say if I were trying to hide the fact that the movie is a musical.”
Digger was directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, known for movies like Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015). Both films cleaned up at the Oscars, with Iñárritu winning best director for both and Birdman taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture. Cruise is no slouch either, considered to be the last real movie star in some circles, though it’s easy to poke holes in that thesis when you look at how younger actors like Zendaya have been doing at the box office recently.
Digger hasn’t been screened for reviewers yet so it’s unclear whether this one will live up to expectations. But it seems very likely that it will do better as a non-musical than it would’ve as a surprise musical. For starters, the golden age of musicals is well behind us as a society. But perhaps more importantly, audiences don’t enjoy being tricked.
If Digger really was a secret musical, that would likely come out before its wide release Oct. 2. But thanks to advances in AI, we can already predict the inevitable when the full film is widely available: We’d bet someone will make a musical AI slop version. And it will be absolutely unwatchable horseshit.
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