Over the decades, Robin Hood has become one of the those characters destined for constant re-imagining, with a bevy of television series and film based on the character. The most recent big-screen adaptation – a 2010 Ridley Scott film starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett – was moderately successful, taking in $322 million worldwide on a $200 million budget (but only $105 million domestically).

However, that under-performance hasn’t stopped Hollywood from looking to revisit the character yet again. We already know that Sony is considering development of an entire shared movie universe centered on the character and his comrades, while Disney may still be aiming to launch a Pirates of the Caribbean-esque adventure franchise titled Nottingham & Hood.


Now, courtesy of Deadline, we’ve learned that screenwriter Joby Harold is writing a dark take on the title folk hero with Robin Hood: Origins. Harold also worked on director Guy Ritchie’s upcoming King Arthur franchise launch Knights of the Round Table. His Robin Hood project could potentially be incorporated into Sony’s project, according to Deadline‘s report, though no studio is currently connected to his script just yet.

The fact that Harold has experience crafting an origin story for a legendary figure in King Arthur presumably bodes well for his version of Robin Hood. However, his dark and gritty reboot for the character does sound an awful lot like Scott’s film, which took a far darker and more grounded approach than the 1991 Kevin Costner-led Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The character of Robin Hood has been adapted so many times over the years that Harold’s script will likely have to truly come across as something fresh in order to capture moviegoers’ attention.



Since The Dark Knight trilogy broke box office records, Hollywood has been intent on bringing every character from The Amazing Spider-Man to Godzilla with dead-serious franchise restarts, with varying degrees of success. When done right, it can totally revitalize a brand, but if it’s botched, it can result in, say, the studio scrambling to make a quick course-correction (looking at you, Spidey).

Of course, it’s far too early to speculate how Robin Hood: Origins will pan out, but it will be interesting to see if the film manages to crack the code of breathing new life into such an iconic character. Do you think a dark origin story would work for a character like Robin Hood, or is project doomed before it even begins?

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