A hero with more live-action reboots than Batman, Superman and Spiderman combined, the latest incarnation of “Robin Hood” sees the famed bowman aiming for the hearts of a new generation of angry, superhero-loving youths.
With “Kingsman” star Taron Egerton in the title role, Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures has likened this hip new take to the Iwanyk-produced “John Wick” films, telling Collider last year, “The stuff we’re doing with the bow and arrow, it’s the same thing that Keanu does with the gun.” Iwanyk characterized the film as an allegorical origin story to reflect the wealth disparity of our times and channel the frustrations of the younger generation, describing the folk hero as “a kid going off to war thinking he’s going on a great Crusade, and realizing it’s all bullshit and coming back with some PTSD and realizing he’s been lied to.”
The cast and crew of “Robin Hood” (formerly known as ‘Robin Hood: Origins’) have doubled down on this edgy, contemporary framing. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Egerton compared the film’s first act to “The Hurt Locker,” while director Otto Bathurst (“Peaky Blinders,” “Black Mirror”) wished to stress that there will be no “guys in tights running around swashbuckling,” instead choosing to portray Robin Hood as a “seriously militarized anarchist revolutionary, a freedom thinker and a truth seeker.” Jamie Foxx, who plays Robin’s second-in-command Little John, meanwhile stated that he wanted to be involved in the project “because it’s hood, not Robin Hood.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton) a war-hardened Crusader and his Moorish commander (Jamie Foxx) mount an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown in a thrilling action-adventure packed with gritty battlefield exploits, mind-blowing fight choreography, and a timeless romance. Summit Entertainment presents, an Appian Way production, a Safehouse Pictures production, in association with Thunder Roads Films.
With a script by newcomers Ben Chandler and David James Kelly, the film stars Egerton, Foxx, Ben Mendelsohn, Eve Hewson, Tim Minchin, and Jamie Dornan.
“Robin Hood” hits cinemas November 21.
Here’s the new trailer: