Taron Egerton’s ‘Robin Hood’ First Look Released

Robin Hood is making his return to the big screen, and fans now have their first look at eh new […]

December 8, 2017, 4:33pm

Robin Hood is making his return to the big screen, and fans now have their first look at eh new rebel of Nottingham.

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The newest iteration of Robin Hood comes from director Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders) and Taron Edgerton (Kingsman franchise), but the new images also give us a glimpse of Maid Marian, who will be played by Eve Hewson (The Knick). As you can see, this will be a much more grounded take on the iconic character, something Bathurst felt was important, promising “no guys in tights running around swashbuckling”.

“You don’t become a legend for 800 years if you’ve just stolen a few bags of money from rich people to give to the poor,” Bathurst told EW. “In my mind, Robin Hood was this sort of seriously militarized anarchist revolutionary, a freedom thinker and a truth seeker. And the more I got into the story, it just became startling how utterly relevant it is to what’s going on in society now.”

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That vision of the character is what sold Egerton on coming aboard. “I was approached not long after the first Kingsman movie had come out, and my initial response, to be totally honest, was ‘Why?’ [But] Otto told me he wanted to do something entirely revisionist, something that can’t be tied down to a medieval universe. The first act of the movie, these scenes crusading in Syria, were written like something from The Hurt Locker. It was fantastic, and that was enough to convince me,” Egerton said.

Egerton and Hewson will be joined by Jamie Foxx (Little John), Jamie Dornan (Will Scarlett), and Ben Mendelsohn, who will be playing the part of the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. That role is often associated with the late Alan Rickman, who played the part in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Mendelsohn is fully aware of that.

“That performance is a delightful tour de force, and I knew and loved the man,” Mendelsohn said. “But I get a kick out of [sharing it], and I think he would have too.”

Jamie Foxx is a big fan of Mendelsohn, and thinks he’ll knock the role out of the park “He’s venomous,” Foxx said. “So good. There are some people that can just whup your ass. Him, Samuel Jackson, Viola Davis: ass whuppers.” The grounded vision of Bathurst sold Foxx as well. “I wanted to be part of it because it’s hood, not Robin Hood. He’s making it new and interesting, and it gives it weight.”

That said, the tights promise might have been tweaked a bit according to Egerton. “I did initially say the only thing I wouldn’t do was wear tights, and the pants did sort of get tighter and tighter… Let’s just call them jeggings now,” Egerton said.

Robin Hood currently enjoys a 3.02 out of 5 on ComicBook.com’s anticipation rankings, and you can submit your vote for the film here. You can view the new images in the gallery.

Robin Hood is set to land in theaters on September 21, 2018.