British filmmaker Justin Hardy, who directed the sequel to his late father Robin’s 1973 cult horror classic The Wicker Man, has died aged 61.

His family said Hardy died on Friday night after suffering a heart attack, remembering him as “a man of family, of boundless creativity” and “so full of life right to the end”.

A Bafta and Emmy nominated writer and director, Hardy was best known for his documentary Children of the Wicker Man in 2024, made with his brother Dominic which chronicled the legacy of their father’s iconic film.

He had just completed production on Wrath of the Gods, the concluding chapter to the Wicker Man trilogy, which was due to premiere later this month.

Throughout his career, Hardy also directed historical documentaries and TV series 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 family said they were “devastated” by his death and “heartbroken” Hardy would not be able to see Wrath of the Gods open.

Hardy’s brother Dominic described him as having “an incredible appetite for life”.

“We’ve lost him and we’ve lost that larger-than-life presence looking over us all,” he said. “He really became a filmmaker his own right.”

Dominic also praised Hardy’s work on his last film as “incredibly beautiful”, adding it was “a great satisfaction to him” to have made something new.

The Wicker Man, starring Christopher Lee, is the story of a police officer sent to a remote Scottish island community to investigate the disappearance of a local girl.

Wrath of the Gods was inspired by recently discovered scripts and storyboards by Hardy’s late father Robin, marking the end of the trilogy that began with The Wicker Man and the 2011 follow-up The Wicker Tree.

Hardy, who also taught screenwriting at University College London, is survived by his wife Larissa, and their four children.