“People speak of Robin Hood. Tell his stories. They’re all lies” whispers Hugh Jackman, looking haggard and rugged up with furs and trauma alike in the first trailer for Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood.
Ditching origins for endings, the new period piece drama abandons the charming, rogueish outlaw typically seen in Robin Hood tales for an aged and jaded elder outlaw at the end of his rope. As the official logline puts it, this darker imagining of the outlaw king is grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder while in recovery from a battle he thought would be his last with a mysterious woman who offers him a chance at salvation.
In an interview with EW, Sarnoski explained his vision for the legendary character, saying “[Robin Hood] was this murderous outlaw who did a lot of terrible things, and was kind of monstrous. But he’s lived long enough to see this folklore get created about him. He’s figuring out how he feels about that, about being portrayed as a hero when he knows what he really was.”
The film was shot in 35mm, with a gory and muddy atmosphere soaked with old English grit, thanks in part to a Northern Ireland-based production. Think Robert Eggers’ The Northman, but with more bows and less axe-throwing. The rest of the cast includes Jodie Comer (28 Years Later), Bill Skarsgard (Nosferatu), Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus). The film is written and directed by Sarnoski, whose previous credits include the Nicolas Cage-starring Pig (2021) and A Quiet Place: Day One (2024).
A24 acquired the U.S rights to the film at Cannes in 2024, with WME Entertainment managing distribution rights in Australia and the rest of the world. While no official release date has been confirmed, you can watch the trailer below.
