A look at some of the tales of Sherwood Forest
The newest Robin Hood is a vibe.
In The Death of Robin Hood (rated R, in theaters now), Hugh Jackman takes the broken-down old Wolverine of Logan and goes like a hundred times more grizzled and dark with the outlaw Robin. Now an old old man with hair and beard that are completely out of control (his kingdom for a headband and some conditioner), Robin is, as he explains in the movie’s opening moments, not the heroic rob-from-the-rich economic equalizer of legend. There was no great love Maid Marian, there was no giving to the poor, and if he fought a sheriff or a bad guy here and there it was incidental because he fought, and killed, a lot of people — to include the person he soliloquies all this to, one of the many relatives of someone he once murdered who has come for vengeance.
But he does have one buddy, the equally bad Little John (Bill Skarsgård), who seeks him out to help with his own vengeance situation. Seems that years earlier, John killed a man and b asically stole his identity and his farm. Since then, Little John has been Edward, married to a good woman named Margaret and father to little Margaret (Faith Delaney). Except now the real Edward’s family has kidnapped his family and wants to take back his/their land. He asks Robin to help him get it back, which he does, with exactly the bloody results predicted.
Because he is super old, Robin is severely injured during the battle and John takes him to recover at an island priory, run by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer). In his weakened state, Robin is quiet and still enough to find himself comforted by Brigid’s care and the safe haven she has created on the island.
But like, kind of a bleak safe haven because everything about this movie is pretty bleak. (Also bleak but pretty. Props to the cinematographer, Pat Scola, according to IMDb.) And bleak is the vibe this Robin Hood is all about — bleak like the unforgiving winter wilderness, bleak like the idea that people will always prefer a legend to the truth, bleak like a church farm run by a prioress with a superbleak past, bleak like a very grizzled old man vacillating between feeling the awful weight of his crimes and having no problem committing more of them. That that guy is Robin Hood is fine, whatever, but I don’t know that it necessarily adds anything to the story it’s telling. And it’s telling that story kinda slowly — the runtime is listed as two hours and three minutes but it feels longer than that.
The performances here are great — Hugh Jackman as a man who can’t really deal with the things he’s done in his life, Jodie Comer as someone determined to create a peaceful life from a horror-filled past. And the movie looks amazing. Just don’t go in expecting a lot of merry swashbuckling.
The lack of classic Robin Hood-ing in this latest Robin Hood movie had me seeking out other Robin Hood content.
MGM+’s Robin Hood series premiered its first season of 10 episodes in November 2025 and it’s been renewed for a second season, according to Wikipedia. I’ve seen the first four episodes and I do like that this one orients itself not around the Crusades but around the tensions between the Norman invaders who have taken positions and land from the Saxon colonized. I don’t know how historically accurate all this is, timewise, but whatever, I appreciate the new take.
We meet Rob Locksley (Jack Patten as an adult) when he is a boy and his dad, Hugh (Tom Mison), is still angry at having his family’s lands and mansion taken away by Normans. Hugh is strongarmed by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Sean Bean) into taking the job as the, like, hall monitor for the forests, keeping poachers from taking the “King’s deer.” As the years go by, Hugh puts effort into being kinda bad at his job so he doesn’t have to go around arresting his Saxon neighbors. But, by the time Robin is all grown up, Hugh’s permissive approach to poachers and the grudge he still holds toward the Norman Lord Huntington (Steven Waddington) who took Hugh’s house leads the Sheriff to go along with plans to arrest Hugh for treason. Robin’s grief quickly leads to some outlaw behavior that has him hiding in the woods with Little John (Marcus Fraser), Friar Tuck (Angus Castle-Doughty) and other only mildly merry men.
Meanwhile, in London, Huntington’s daughter Marian (Lauren McQueen) is in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Connie Nielsen) and is pining for Rob, who she spent some time with before troubles flared up. The core cast also includes Priscilla (Lydia Peckham), the daughter of Nottingham, who is the frequent star of the episodes’ comically unsexy sex scenes. They feel very “check out our sex scene, we’re prestige!” without feeling particularly necessary or fun.
This whole show feels expensive-cheap. Like, this isn’t made on a dime — the actors’ costumes fit and the sets are good enough. But there is an inch-thick feel to the world and to the characters. It reminds me a bit of the 1990s and early aughts syndicated shows of the Xena Warrior Princess ilk, but grayer lighting and none of those shows’ lack of self-seriousness.
The June 15 episode of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast reminded me of the existence of the 2010 Ridley Scott-directed Robin Hood(on HBO Max, and available for rent or purchase). Rereading my review from the time, I liked it fine then and — like hosts Joe Reid and Chris Feil on the podcast — I might like it even more now. Russell Crowe plays Robin Longstride, the character who eventually becomes Robin Hood, and Cate Blanchett is Marian. They have nice chemistry and have some genuinely funny scenes together. There are some very Ridley Scott battle scenes, some nice business with Robin and all the guys who become his Merry Men and excellent villains in Mark Strong and Oscar Isaac, who at moments almost seemed to be mixing in a little Sir Hiss from the 1973 animated Robin Hood (Disney+, as well as rent or purchase). Fun is being had while a story is being told and I can totally forgive whatever bits of Gladiator it seems to be mixing in.
Over on Prime Video, you can find 2018’s Robin Hood starring Taron Egerton in the title role, Jamie Fox as a sort of Little John-esque character and Eve Hewson (who showed up in the recent Disclosure Day) as Marian. While 2010’s movie, like 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, goes for some sense of historical realism, 2018’s movie is set in a kind of alternate medieval era where armor looks more like bulletproof vest and there are touches of steampunk and, I don’t know, Megalopolis? This movie more than others really goes for the “Robin Hood equals Batman” comparison with some very Bruce Wayne and Batman universe story beats. Ben Mendelsohn plays the villain Sheriff of Nottingham/personification of the U.S. War on Terror — this also feels like an Iraq war movie, weirdly. It is sometimes surprisingly dark and sometimes a “good entertainment while you fold your laundry” level of fun.
While you’re over at Prime Video, check out 2022’s British production The Adventures of Maid Marian, which has real scrappy student film energy, with some Party City-looking costumes and “the glue is not quite dry on that” sets and a few “we cast this guy because he owned one of the cameras” casting choices. That said, I kind of had fun watching it? Marian (Sophie Craig) has spent the last three years hiding out at a nunnery, pretending to be a novitiate, while waiting for Robin (Dominic Anderson) to return from the crusades. When he does come back, they quickly learn that the former Sheriff of Nottingham (Bob Cryer) has returned, with a plan to kill Robin Hood and take back his office. Craig doesn’t have much to work with but she does a watchable job with what she’s got. This is a light B movie for when you are in a light B movie mood.
Speaking of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (rent or purchase), that movie kind of rides the line between B movie touches and big blockbuster production. Kevin Costner’s performance is exactly as remembered — he remains a weird choice for the style of playfulness and charm the role seems to need. The appearance of Christian Slater certainly takes you back to the early 1990s but Alan Rickman’s performance remains a mustache-twirling bit of goofy fun.
Featured photo: The Death of Robin Hood.
