Writer and director Michael Sarnoski don show im cast and crew one film wey im love for im new movie shoot – na Disney 1973 animated Robin Hood, di one wey di hero be fox wey wear green cap, dey rob rich give poor. But dat beloved version no be wetin Sarnoski im own film, The Death of Robin Hood, dey talk about. Hugh Jackman play Robin wey grey hair, battle-weary, dey tink about im life and know say im own legend don big.
When Robin meet one woman wey dey talk about di virtuous, justice-seeking Robin Hood, im deny who im be and speak for third person: “He was not a hero. He robbed and killed for the joy of it, nothing more.” Dis violent Robin Hood and odder revisionist takes wey dey push back against im good-guy image, dem dey closer to di original medieval legends dan di family-friendly stereotype wey we sabi today.
Di depiction of Robin Hood don change for centuries, each change reflect di era wey reinterpret am. Dese darker 21st-Century variations dey look back to di story origins, but as some of dia creators note, dem also dey speak to present. Complicated views of di character challenge a polarised world where heroes and villains often dey starkly good or bad, just like di simplified Robin Hood legend wey become over centuries.
Although plenty speculation dey about an actual Robin Hood, historians largely agree say no single, living person behind di character, just a vastly unequal society of wealthy landowners and impoverished peasants wey inspire im creation. Di stories start as oral tradition for 12th Century, but di first written accounts no arrive until two centuries later, for ballads wey show am as a celebrated figure even then.
For those first written accounts, im no be di noble Sir Robin of Locksley as later versions make am. Im no be noble at all, but a yeoman, a rung above peasant. No Maid Marian for story until 16th Century. And while im perfectly nice to poor, helping dem no be im main purpose. Im enemies na di corrupt clergy and di land-owning nobles wey take advantage of dia underlings.
For an afterword to im revisionist novel, The Traitor of Sherwood Forest (2025), medieval historian Amy S Kaufman describe di Robin Hood of early legends as “a morally grey medieval trickster,” and a “violent, irreverent rogue”. Disney correct for one tin: di first ballads suggest say Robin sly as fox.
A major change for story come for 16th Century. King Henry VIII be fan and sometimes dress up as Robin Hood. During di reign of di monarch wey split from Catholic Church, Robin devotion to Virgin Mary vanish from legend. As upper classes embrace am, for influential chronicles of dat time di character no longer hate nobility, but become noble himself. Positioned as a morally upright nobleman battling im disreputable equals, im stop questioning di power structure of society. Im enlist to help di good King Richard return to throne wey im evil brother Prince John usurp, a trope wey persist through Disney depiction of John as greedy, power-hungry lion.
During 19th Century, children books help turn Robin Hood even more into a sanitised do-gooder acceptable to Victorians. And for 20th Century, cinema perpetuate dat portrayal, with matinee idol Errol Flynn as swashbuckling Sir Robin for 1938 popular The Adventures of Robin Hood. Disney, for perhaps di most formative version, solidify dat image for culture.
Sarnoski tell BBC say di contrast between Disney film and original legends don fascinate am since childhood, when im read a storybook version of di medieval ballad The Death of Robin Hood. There, Robin die quietly, killed by an evil prioress and her lover. “Knowing the Disney Robin Hood and then reading the Death of Robin Hood, those two versions of the character – trying to grapple with that and understand how that can be the same character really stuck with me as a kid,” im say.
For Sarnoski film, Robin injure during a graphic battle – an arrow fly through di back of a boy head and come out through im eye – and dem take am to a priory to recover. Jodie Comer play di prioress, wey depart from di ballad depiction of her, dey kind. “I didn’t want the prioress to just be this simple evil nun and I didn’t want Robin to just be this simple goodly hero,” Sarnoski say, about creating more nuanced characters. And as Robin reflect and begin to regret im past, “It [the film] really becomes a story about him grappling with his own legend and then grappling with his own desire for what he sees as a right death,” im say.
Di falsity of legends also be a major theme for Kaufman novel, and Disney shape her early impressions too. She tell BBC, “I grew up on the fox Robin Hood, and then I went into medieval studies and discovered the ballads and thought, ‘Where’s my Robin Hood that I know and love?’” The Traitor of Sherwood Forest centre on di fictional Jane, a peasant wey fall for Robin Hood legend. She swoon over am and become part of im outlaw band, but begin to wonder if im heroic image and di seductive Robin himself don lead her astray. Kaufman Robin, neither hero nor villain, dey true to di character origins.
For di ballads, she say, “He is incredibly subversive when you look at the way he goes up against people in power, like kings, like nobility, like the church. But he also, in every one of the ballads, either has a tragic end or is a victim of his own flaws.” For di last century, such complex views of Robin Hood don rare. On screen, actors from Douglas Fairbanks to Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe don play di part, and almost all follow di stereotypical image. One notable outlier na Robin and Marian (1976), a smart, elegant film wey deserve to be much better known. Sean Connery play di ageing Robin, reunited after decades with Marian (Audrey Hepburn), now a prioress. Dis Robin deny say di legendary stories true, and dey contemplative at di end of im life. “I keep thinking of all the death I’ve seen,” im tell Marian, and wonder wetin im for.
Such questions – about power, heroes, and how dia stories dem tell – na exactly wetin make revisionist views feel so contemporary. “The world is consolidating power in ways similar to what the Middle Ages had,” Kaufman say. “Some of the things that they had to think about are things that we are going to have to think about.” Sarnoski point out how im characters wield stories as power. “Robin used stories as a weapon and as a way to perpetuate violence,” as im lure followers, im say, while “The prioress uses stories as a way to help and heal people.” Those strategies dey everywhere today. “We are so steeped in narrative right now between social media and the internet and just everything that’s swirling around us,” Sarnoski say. “We’re so quick to dive into camps and tribalism and create heroes and villains and not live in the grey area that life actually exists in.”
As bracing as darker new versions of Robin Hood be, dem no likely to replace di Disneyfied image. “Not everybody wants to have their Robin Hood fantasy disrupted,” Kaufman say. “He’s become like Santa Claus in the sense that he stands for something bigger than whatever the actual legend was.” The Death of Robin Hood release for US on 19 June.
