Who killed Robin Hood? The dark legends that inspired the new Hugh Jackman blockbuster

Gritty and grounded, The Death of Robin Hood stars Hugh Jackman as the legendary outlaw, now gravely wounded after a lifetime of violence and offered a final chance at redemption. Speaking to writer and director Michael Sarnoski about the historical roots and creative inspirations behind his new film, Emily Briffett looks at the enduring legend of Robin Hood’s death and the blurred lines between myth and history

An older, bearded man in a heavy fur cloak faces the camera against a bleak mountain landscape.

Published: September 18, 2026 at 3:32 PM

Save

Robin Hood has been a fixture of English folklore for centuries, most often portrayed as a green-clad outlaw stealing from the rich, giving to the poor, and outwitting the Sheriff of Nottingham with his band of Merry Men. It’s an image that’s a far cry from what audiences see in The Death of Robin Hood.

Ad

In the film from writer and director Michael Sarnoski, Hugh Jackman’s Robin Hood is an aged man worn down by years of violence and crime, grappling with the fallout of his decisions, when he is offered one final chance at redemption.
This different vision of the outlaw begs the question: is it possible to capture an authentic, accurate version of Robin Hood? How do you separate fact from fiction?

How did Robin Hood die?

The earliest surviving medieval accounts that mention Robin Hood give little detail as to the character’s death, but early modern retellings developed a more dramatic ending.

In one of the best-known traditions, from versions of a 17th-century ballad known as Robin Hood's Death or Robin Hoode his Death, Robin and Little John travelled to Kirklees Priory, where he was then betrayed by his cousin, the prioress. While bloodletting an unwell Robin, she deliberately took too much blood, leaving him fatally weakened. In one version, Robin is also stabbed by his enemy – and the prioress’s lover – Sir Roger of Doncaster, otherwise known as ‘Red Roger’.

With his last ounces of strength, Robin is said to have shot one final arrow from his deathbed, asking Little John to be buried wherever it landed. Although there is no firm historical evidence that Robin Hood was a real individual (let alone where he may have died) this tale has helped establish Kirklees as his supposed final resting place.

It was this narrative of Robin Hood’s death that inspired Sarnoski. “I had been fascinated by the death of Robin Hood story since I was a little kid,” he explained. “It was so surprising that this man of adventure ends up [dying] in this sunlit church. The intimacy of that story always struck me.”

A long-haired, bearded man in rough medieval clothing grips a staff beneath tall forest trees.

A weathered Robin Hood stands among the trees, armed for survival | Credit: DORH Holding Co. LLC

Hero or villain?

In the early modern retellings of Robin Hood’s death, there is a sharp dichotomy between the two main characters: the prioress is a scheming villainess to Robin’s ailing hero. Sarnoski has instead made the decision to flip this perception on its head. However, that’s not to say that the film’s approach to characterisation is not rooted in historical imagination.

Sarnoski looked to figures like Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century German abbess and polymath, as inspiration for the prioress. Similarly, Sarnoski says that his Robin is far from the unblemished hero. Instead, his characterisation is rooted in the question: “If Robin wasn’t this goodly hero, what would life as a medieval bandit have been like? How brutal might that have been?”

Rather than drawing on the later, more romanticised versions of the Robin Hood myth, Sarnoski grounded the feeling of the film in the earliest surviving documented ballads – including, among others, A Gest of Robyn Hode, Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, and Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. These sources provide a glimpse into a more morally ambiguous Robin: “They are mischievous, very violent stories about this outlaw who has a moral code, but it’s not as solidified as [that of the stories] we are familiar with nowadays”.

In a dim candlelit room, a bearded man draws a sword beside a bed.

By candlelight, Hugh Jackman's Robin Hood inspects an arrow | Credit: DORH Holding Co. LLC

An evolving story

Indeed, there are many elements of Robin Hood’s story that have changed over time. “A lot was added later on,” Sarnoski notes, referring to familiar tropes such as Robin’s connection to Richard the Lionheart and the idea of stealing from the rich to give to the poor: “That was not in the original texts”.

Equally, instead of giving to the poor and needy, Robin’s main focus was originally targeting corrupt clergy and members of the nobility – something that was expanded upon over time. Additionally, he was no scorned noble, but a yeoman. Even fair Maid Marian was a somewhat later invention.

However, what is clear in these early ballads is the folk hero’s impressive skills at archery.

Fittingly, one of the new film’s central themes is the uncertainty of truth in legend – a question that is regularly raised when it comes to the story of Robin Hood. As Sarnoski explained: “What would happen if you outlived your time as an outlaw and were seeing your own legends start to become these folktales? Even these characters are unsure about which of these things are true and which aren’t.”

“If we’re too precious about our stories, we can define ourselves too much by those things and that can be dangerous. I want people to think about the stories they tell themselves, why they tell them, and to be able to take a step back and think about the place of them [in their understanding of the past]”.

Ad

The Death of Robin Hood is in cinemas now.

Authors

Emily BriffettSenior content producer (podcasts)

Emily Briffett is senior content producer (podcasts) at HistoryExtra

Ad

Ad

Loading...

Ad

Loading...