The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Directed by: Michael Sarnoski
Premise: Set in thirteenth century England, the outlaw Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) lives alone in the wilderness. After suffering severe injuries, Robin Hood is taken in at a monastery where he heals and reflects on his life.
What Works: Robin Hood has been brought to movie screens many times, almost always as a morally upstanding populist hero. The Death of Robin Hood presents a different take on the character. A lot of Hollywood versions of Robin Hood have romanticized brigandry, imagining this character robbing the wealthy and the powerful but doing so without actually hurting anybody. It’s a ludicrous idea which The Death of Robin Hood exposes by earnestly acknowledging that this character would have been a murderer. Partly inspired by a seventeenth century ballad, The Death of Robin Hood imagines the character as a disillusioned antihero riddled with guilt. This is a redemption story which is supported by the cinematography and production design. The visual style evolves with the character. The savage opening gives way to a soulful and beautiful second half. Hugh Jackman stars in the title role. There are parallels between The Death of Robin Hood and Logan and Jackman is in familiar territory but he does it well. The supporting cast is impressive. Jodie Comer plays the nun who oversees the monastery, Murray Bartlett plays a leper who tends a garden, and Faith Delaney is the daughter of Little John.These characters add reality and emotional weight to the movie.
What Doesn’t: The Death of Robin Hood is the latest in a long running trend of movies that revisit heroes and find them disillusioned and haunted by failure. It’s a path well-trodden in contemporary legacy sequels such as 2008’s Rambo, the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Live Free or Die Hard, Terminator: Dark Fate, 2018’s Halloween, 2022’s Scream, and 2026’s The Odyssey. The Death of Robin Hood does this better than some others but the premise feels overly familiar especially since Hugh Jackman already participated in this trend with Logan. The story is a bit strained by its reliance on coincidences. Robin Hood arrives at an isolated monastery only to find that many of the people there have connections to his past. The pacing of The Death of Robin Hood is appropriate but slow. The languid pace suits the reflective tone and gives the characters room to grow but the film isn’t building toward anything meaningful. The end of the movie is underwhelming. It’s admirable that the filmmakers avoid a contrived heroic ending but it’s not much of a conclusion thematically or emotionally.
Bottom Line: The Death of Robin Hood is simultaneously a subversive take on a familiar folk hero and a cliché legacy sequel. The performances and production design are very good but this treatment of Robin Hood does not quite follow through to an interesting or novel conclusion.
Episode: #1113 (August 23, 2026)