Hugh Jackman plays a brutal aging Robin Hood in The Death of Robin Hood, now in theaters from A24 and director Michael Sarnoski.
The Death of Robin Hood is not the movie you think it is. Michael Sarnoski, who made Pig and then somehow convinced a studio to let him make that weird Quiet Place spinoff, has returned with a film that takes the Prince of Thieves and turns him into a broken, murderous old man who just wants to die properly. Hugh Jackman plays this version with a beard that looks like it has its own ecosystem and a thousand-yard stare that suggests he has seen things no Disney adaptation would ever show.
The film adapts the 17th-century ballad “Robin Hood’s Death,” which is significantly less merry than the Errol Flynn version you grew up with. This Robin is a killer. He stabs a young drifter in the head during the opening scene, lives alone in 1247 England, and refers to himself as “wrecked and wanton.” When Little John shows up asking for help defending his family, Robin gets dragged into one last battle that leaves him critically wounded and in the care of Sister Brigid, played by Jodie Comer with the stoic patience of a woman who has seen too many broken men.
The Death of Robin Hood Violence Is Genuinely Shocking
The Death of Robin Hood opens with a level of brutality that would make Logan look like a Pixar film. Bodies break in mud, flaming torches meet faces, and red-hot blades sear flesh. Sarnoski reportedly pursued a “fever-dream hellishness” akin to Robert Eggers’ The Northman, and for the first thirty minutes, he absolutely delivers. Then the film shifts into something quieter and more devastating—a chamber piece about damaged people trying to heal each other in a priory that has become a sanctuary for the lost.
The supporting cast is uniformly excellent. Bill Skarsgård plays Little John as a former underage criminal accomplice who grew up but never escaped Robin’s shadow. Murray Bartlett appears as a leper whose acceptance of his fate becomes a mirror for Robin’s own spiritual crisis. Noah Jupe plays Arthur, a boy tasked with revenge who finds himself unable to finish the job. And newcomer Faith Delaney as Margaret, Little John’s orphaned daughter, provides the emotional anchor that keeps the film from collapsing under its own grim weight.
The Death of Robin Hood sits at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics divided between those who find it “intelligent and exquisitely crafted” and those who think it “wears its dourness as a badge of honor.” Variety called it “a commendably mature bit of summer counter-programming,” while RogerEbert.com praised Sarnoski’s ability to “subvert expectations” within a familiar genre. The film is currently in theaters, proving that A24 will release literally anything if the director has vision and the cast has enough prestige.
Jackman has called this one of the most challenging roles of his career, and it shows. The Death of Robin Hood asks him to be monstrous and vulnerable in the same breath, to make you believe that a mass murderer can still deserve redemption. Whether you buy that premise will determine whether you love or hate this film. But you will not forget it.
See The Death of Robin Hood in theaters now and decide for yourself if legends deserve the endings they get.
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