Michael Sarnoski
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The Northman (2022)
Directed by Robert Eggers
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Visuals Themes
Robin Hood and Little John’s nighttime skirmishes with adversaries in the mud come off as Temu Northman material.
'La muerte de Robin Hood' comienza siendo tan violenta e implacable, masoquista, como 'El hombre del Norte', el 'Hamlet' de Robert Eggers…
So narratively it feels like we’re watching something like Logan, and visually like a version of The Northman and The Revenant melted and cooked in the same pot.
There are echoes of “The Northman” and “The Green Knight” in its aesthetics, action, and atmosphere.
Sarnoski handles it so well that if he ever tackled a straightforward historical action film, he’d likely nail it in much the same way Robert Eggers did with The Northman.
Much like “The Green Knight” or “The Northman,” Sarnoski grounds the folklore in mud, blood, and mortality…
Robin Hood (2010)
Directed by Ridley Scott
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Plot Characters
The Taron Edgerton Robin Hood didn’t exactly define a generation…
Ridley Scott tried to do it with Russell Crowe in 2010’s Robin Hood…
Writer/director Michael Sarnoski (fresh off helming Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One) at least tries differentiating this story from post-2009 Robin Hood titles headlined by Russell Crowe and Taron Edgerton by eschewing an origin story.
…or the flashy, forgettable 2018 version starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx…
Those envisioning or, worse, requiring the likes of Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, or Cary Elwes are walking into the wrong movie…
Oh yeah, there was also a 2018 "Robin Hood" starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx that I'm pretty sure no one remembers.
The Death of Robin Hood feels very similar to Logan with its themes. Both films decide to take a deeper look at a man who has lived a life of slaughtering people, comes across a young girl that he must take care of, and faces an inevitable fate, to which the title of the movie alludes.
This retelling of the story has more to do with Hugh Jackman’s “Logan” than the traditional take.
Just as the hulking Skarsgård equals brother Alexander’s historical brutality from The Northman, in some ways Jackman is revisiting some of the themes of Logan.
…aka the prequel to “Logan” (2017) (just kidding)…
It’s not unlike what we saw from Hugh Jackman in Logan…
Indeed, the Jackman film that The Death Of Robin Hood most resembles is 2017’s Logan, which also flaunted a dour air.
The Green Knight (2021)
Directed by David Lowery
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Visuals Themes
There are echoes of “The Northman” and “The Green Knight” in its aesthetics, action, and atmosphere.
Much like “The Green Knight” or “The Northman,” Sarnoski grounds the folklore in mud, blood, and mortality…
It presents a much darker vision of Robin Hood, in the vein of Robert Eggers’ The Northman and David Lowery’s The Green Knight.
…with less meditation than, say, David Lowery’s The Green Knight…
The Death of Robin Hood ably mixes the meditative myth-busting of Unforgiven, the medieval ultra-violence of The Northman, and the dreary Celtic aesthetic of The Green Knight.
Like David Lowery’s The Green Knight and Robert Eggers’s The Northman before it, The Death of Robin Hood is a revisionist folk tale that attempts to bring a legend down to earth.
Unforgiven (1992)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Themes Characters Plot
Almost 35 years ago, Clint Eastwood released his masterpiece Unforgiven, which presented a dark, new spin on the violent anti-heroes he’d spent a lifetime playing.
It’s one thing when Unforgiven’s William Munny, another seemingly beyond redemption protagonist, confesses to being haunted by the women and children he killed long ago.
Like Unforgiven’s William Munny, Jackman’s Robin Hood is a grizzled killer haunted by an unimaginably violent past that continues to chase him.
If you’ve seen “Shane,” “Unforgiven,” “Vengeance” (2009), or “Logan” (amongst many others), then a lot of these beats will seem familiar.
John Wick (2014)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
influenced Pig (2021), The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Characters Plot Themes
…a darker take on the character that isn’t just John Wick if he was Robin Hood…
Pig ’s premise—widely compared, after the release of its trailer, to that of John Wick (which saw Keanu Reeves wipe out a group of Russian gangsters in retaliation for killing his pet puppy)—and the casting of Cage suggest a gonzo action flick.
This kind of setup may remind you of revenge thrillers along the likes of John Wick or Cage’s own Mandy , and while Pig does certainly contain similar elements to them (right down to how the hero’s sorrow is what breeds their resolve) and the trailer may sell it that way, the film instead shows that it’s much more interested in quieter, pensive moments and philosophical musings.
If you go into this movie expecting something like “John Wick” crossed with “Gunda,” prepare to have your expectations upended as “Pig” is a melancholy, almost spiritual, meditation on what makes life worth living.
It’s at this point in the film where you expect Pig to take the expected turn of being a John Wick rip-off, and Cage to unleash havoc all over the individuals responsible for stealing his pig.
On paper, it reads like a gonzo knockoff of Keanu Reeves’ John Wick movies in which a hitman also comes out of exile to avenge a murdered dog.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Directed by Michael Curtiz
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Characters Plot
With a deep, whitish-grey beard and hair, he looks more like Santa Claus than Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
I threw on 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn.
Sure, I’m partial to a fun, rascally Robin Hood, as embodied by Errol Flynn.
One of the most famous takes is Errol Flynn in the swashbuckling "The Adventures of Robin Hood."
The opening minutes of 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn as the folk legend, show him striding into the banquet hall of Nottingham Castle…
Robin and Marian (1976)
Directed by Richard Lester
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Themes Plot
…la hermosa historia de amor que Richard Lester dirigió a partir de un guion (espléndido) del autor de 'El león en invierno', James Goldman: 'Robin y Marian' (1976)…
I was reminded of Richard Lester’s 1976 film Robin and Marian, which starred Sean Connery as an aging, illiterate Robin Hood whose feats of derring-do were long behind him.
Richard Lester’s great 1976 film Robin and Marian did that already…
To be fair, this approach has been done before, in the form of Richard Lester's wonderful 1976 film "Robin and Marian," starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Directed by Mel Brooks
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Themes Plot Characters
…there’s certainly enough room to subvert the goofy Men in Tights-isms…
…the hysterical 1993 spoof from Mel Brooks…
Hell, I even enjoyed Cary Elwes’ parodistic Robin Hood in one of Mel Brooks’ lesser efforts, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
Mel Brooks' parody of that movie, "Robin Hood: Men in Tights,"…
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Directed by Kevin Reynolds
influenced The Death of Robin Hood (2026)
Characters Plot
I can say I’ve seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves when I was a kid, but that’s about as deep as my connection to the character goes.
Kevin Costner’s 1991 popcorn blockbuster…
Or a surly, vengeful Robin Hood, by Kevin Costner.
Then there's Kevin Costner's very silly, very entertaining "gritty" '90s take in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,"…
Director/co-writer Michael Sarnoski’s “Pig” is a brutal, elegant, mournful, captivating and magnificently filmed story that somehow manages to mix in elements of wilderness films such as “Jeremiah Johnson” and “Into the Wild,” kitchen-centric cooking movies like “Burnt” and there’s even a scene straight out of “Fight Club” — not to mention more than one reference to Greek tragedies.
There’s also some Fight Club (1999) in there.
This is demonstrated both visually and dramatically as Robin leaves the quiet, meditative forest for the city, encountering overblown fine dining establishments and an underground chef culture where busboys and servers take out their frustrations Fight Club style.
From there, Pig takes an insane turn into something between a foodie Fight Club meets Taken.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Visuals
His vision of a ruined New York quickly moves past the initially 9/11-flavored terror of the invasion and leans into otherworldly images of an utterly dead and unrecognizable city that quite often recall the uneasy, sorrowful beauty of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds.
…basically makes Game of Thrones look like child’s play…
…hoping to turn Robin Hood’s escapades into something more akin to Game of Thrones…
I immediately recalled Mel Gibson's over-the-top turn in 1996's "Ransom," particularly the line reading that launched 1,000 memes: "Give me back my son!"
The straight-faced use of film noir tropes in an unlikely setting recalls Rian Johnson’s Brick , and if this movie isn’t as brilliant as that, well, what is?
Arkin’s work here reminds me of Albert Brooks’ excellent performance against type in Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive.”
…the movie’s promised action epic turns into an introspective character study recalling Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, and starts to lose our interest.
Don Siegel’s The Shootist or American Star are entries which managed this kind of last stand trick well…
In the 1980s British television series Robin of Sherwood, audiences were shocked when Robin Hood was struck down by the crossbow bolts of Norman invaders.
While masterpieces like Come and See (1985) have since challenged this argument, Truffaut’s point about this inherent dichotomy remains valid.