There's a new New Robin Hood Movie
... and it's a dark counter-narrative.
Featured image credit: A24, via The Hollywood Reporter
In this year’s first bit of major movie news, A24 has released a trailer for a new Robin Hood movie. It is set in freezing-looking Medieval Britain and it stars Hugh Jackman as our very grizzled-looking, eponymous bandit. It’s called The Death of Robin Hood. Okay, checks out so far.
But wait! The thesis of the film is… what if Robin Hood, a famously great guy, wasn’t actually a great guy?
Here’s the official synopsis: “Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation.”
Yes, folks, we’ve got a counter-narrative. Or an origin story. Or something. I personally think the film posits that Robin Hood was pretty bad before he turned good, but that he will find a redemption ark and start stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as part of that journey.
The trailer offers these questions, among many others.
The film also stars Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett, and Noah Jupe. All of these appearances are good signs, methinks.
We’ll have to wait for the film to find out the rest. No release date has been announced, but that’s fine. I’m patient.
Olivia Rutigliano
Olivia Rutigliano is an Editor at Lit Hub and CrimeReads. Her other work appears in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, AirMail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, and elsewhere. She has a PhD from the departments of English/comparative literature and theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow. She hosts the podcasst "Culture Schlock" at Lit Hub Radio. She is on instagram at @oldebean, twitter at @oldrutigliano, and bluesky at @oliviarutigliano.bsky.social.
