A classic medieval hero gets a bold reimagining in A24’s The Death of Robin Hood. Written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One), the film follows the legendary archer, played by Hugh Jackman, as he grapples with a lifetime of violence and regret. After his latest adventure leaves him gravely wounded, Robin Hood gains an unexpected chance at redemption under the care of the mysterious Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer).

Though Robin Hood has been adapted countless times for film and television, Sarnoski’s movie stands far apart from its predecessors. By reshaping familiar characters and placing them in a brutal, intense narrative, Sarnoski breathes new life into a centuries-old legend, making it feel more grounded, tragic, and riveting than ever before.

In an interview with Digital Trends, Sarnoski discussed depicting Robin Hood as a deeply flawed figure, working with Jackman and Jodie Comer, and using gut-wrenching violence to tell a gritty story about guilt, forgiveness, and redemption.

How The Death of Robin Hood reinvents iconic characters and stories

Sarnoski said he chose to explore Robin Hood’s demise after growing up on the character’s stories. Though he didn’t think audiences needed another Robin Hood adaptation, he found himself compelled to write the film he had in mind before making A Quiet Place: Day One. In the end, he found himself so moved and engaged by his screenplay that he knew he had to make it into a movie.

“I had always loved the death of Robin Hood legend,” said Sarnoski. “It comes from an old ballad that I was introduced to as a pretty young kid. And it always stuck with me as, “Wait, what?”  This is how the Robin Hood story ends. There’s something beautiful and poetic, yet really simple and human about it. So I knew it was always something I wanted to explore.”

However, rather than presenting Robin Hood as a youthful rebel fighting injustice, the film depicts him as an old, regretful outlaw haunted by his horrible past. Early on, it is established that the heroic stories about Robin stealing from bad people and giving to the meek were false. Robin is instead a ruthless, thrill-seeking outlaw who has no problem killing men, women, or children. With every life he took, he had to slay generations of family members seeking vengeance.

By the time the film begins, Robin Hood is a ferocious yet remorseful old man counting the days until he meets his end and pays off his countless “blood debts,” with Jackman capturing both the ferocity and humanity of his character. He makes Robin compelling even at his most horrific. But as Robin seizes the chance at a new life, Jackman delivers a poignant performance that lifts this tale of forgiveness and redemption even higher.

“[Jackman’s] put so much thought and effort into this character,” said Sarnoski. “When he first read the script, and I sat down with him, it was so clear that he was so moved by it and engaged in all [these] sort of ambiguities and the gray areas of this character, and he really wanted to unpack that…I’ve been very lucky in my career to work with some amazing actors, and he [is] no exception. We could not have made this movie without him.”

Jodie Comer provides the film’s beating heart

Meanwhile, Sister Brigid subverts another core character from Robin Hood lore: the prioress who betrayed and killed him by letting him bleed to death. Brigid is reimagined as a compassionate caretaker dedicated to protecting children and healing the wounded at her priory.

Sarnoski also revealed that he wrote Brigid’s character specifically for Comer, saying the latter “manages to carry so many layers in her performances where she can be profound and wise and feel like beyond her years, and then also where she can feel so sweet and almost childish and human.”

“It was this quiet, gentle, sweet character who has just like multitudes within her, and is really kind of carrying a lot,” Sarnoski added. “The Prioress needed someone like that to sort of stand in opposition to and [mirror] that Robin Hood character that was so intensely played by Hugh, and I can’t imagine a better pairing.”

While Robin and Brigid are polar opposites of their traditional counterparts, the tension between them remains crucial to the story. The revelation that Robin murdered Brigid’s husband creates a fresh, fascinating dynamic built on grief, guilt, and forgiveness, giving Robin’s last adventure new meaning and emotion.

The movie displays the true brutality of medieval life

Popular culture tends to romanticize the medieval era, presenting it as a simpler time filled with gorgeous castles, gallant knights, and thrilling adventures. However, The Death of Robin Hood shatters that fantasy by presenting the harsh reality people lived through during that time period.

Beginning with a peasant girl traveling through the loud, windy mountains, the movie sets a tone that is just as harsh and unforgiving as its protagonist. Even an ordinary conversation between her and Robin quickly turns into a life-or-death struggle, showing just how far people were willing to go just to stay alive back then.

Despite how graphic and violent The Death of Robin Hood is, the bloodshed isn’t glamorized. Sarnoski stated that he didn’t want to approach the violence more like a horror or war film than a Hollywood action or superhero film.

This isn’t some epic tale of armored knights battling on horseback with swords. Instead, ordinary people bash each other into the mud and rip their flesh apart, leaving them with wounds that linger long afterward.

Sarnoski makes us feel the pain of each slash, each burn, each arrow. He makes his audience sit with the agony long after the battle is over. This disturbing execution captures the brutal horror of Robin’s criminal lifestyle, making it far less appealing than the romanticized adventures many people know him from.

“It was supposed to be unpleasant and difficult because that’s what Robin and these other characters are grappling with for the rest of the movie,” Sarnoski explained. “The guilt and difficulty that violence has spread in their lives and this cycle of violence. So we really need to land it as like, “Hey, no, we’re saying Robin was not a hero, and this was a brutal world, and he lived a brutal, brutal life. Not a fun swashbuckling life.” 

Don’t go into this movie expecting a non-stop killing spree akin to John Wick or Sisu. The Death of Robin Hood is not a high-octane action film but rather a slow, thought-provoking character study that brutally and beautifully reimagines the story of Robin Hood.

What should audiences get from The Death of Robin Hood?

As the film’s title suggests, Robin Hood wasn’t going to be a happy, fairy tale ending. Sarnoski didn’t just deliver another dark take on a beloved folktale. He created a realistic, emotional drama that depicts humanity at its best and worst.

Hugh Jackman’s Robin Hood isn’t the hero many are familiar with, but that’s what makes this film so compelling. By transforming a noble outlaw into a flawed man pursuing peace and redemption, Sarnoski delivers one of the most unique, resonating, and insightful Robin Hood adaptations ever filmed.

“I hope audiences come in with an open mind, ready to see a version of Robin Hood that they never really expected they would see…And I hope people leave this [film] thinking about the stories they tell themselves and the stories they tell others and the stories they allow to be told to themselves and integrate it into their kind of souls,” said Sarnoski.

The Death of Robin Hood premieres in U.S. theaters on June 19.

Horror fans can’t get enough of the movie Obsession. Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession follows Bear (Michael Johnston), a hopeless romantic who makes a wish on a One Wish Willow to make his friend and crush, Nikki (Inde Navarrette), fall in love with him. While his wish comes true, his dream romance turns into a bloody nightmare that threatens to destroy him and everyone around him.

After it was made on a budget of less than $1 million, Obsession achieved universal acclaim in theaters, receiving a 96% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also grossed over $100 million at the box office in just three weeks, according to Box Office Mojo, making it one of the most successful horror movies of the decade.

In an interview with Digital Trends, Obsession actor Megan Lawless, who portrayed Bear’s friend and secondary love interest, Sarah, in the film, discussed how she brought her beloved character to life, what it was like making the movie with the cast and crew, and what the future holds for her after its unprecedented success.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Digital Trends: Megan, thank you so much for joining me today. Let’s get started. How [are] you doing?

Lawless: I’m great. How are you?

Digital Trends: I’m fantastic. Everyone, including myself, can’t get enough of Obsession. It just grossed over $100 million at the box office, and I’ve been seeing a lot of people online saying how much they loved your performance as Sarah in the film. So I was wondering if you could tell us how it feels to see so many people react to your character in this way.

Lawless: It’s great. I mean, I’ve always loved Sarah, and I was hoping that people could extrapolate a lot from the time that I was on screen and really root for her. That was always my goal: for people to root for her. So now that I’m seeing everyone rooting for her…in the comments, it just makes me really happy that they love her the way I love her, and that all the elements came together to get fans to support her and root for her.

Digital Trends: Awesome. I’m really curious about what your inspirations were for bringing [Sarah’s] character to life.

Lawless: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know if I had any specific inspirations, per se. I think I just read her off the page, and I understood her pretty immediately. And then after talking with Curry and just making sure that our vision aligned, I felt that just bringing a lot of myself into it and perspective. Her perspectives on everything, I think, shape her as a character as well a lot. So, yeah, that was pretty much it.

I stylistically drew inspiration from Hayley Williams and more punk rock-type girls, more than myself. We have very different styles, me and Sarah. So, that was really fun. And then, I was looking at different punky cool chicks on Pinterest and stuff to get inspiration on my hair because we changed my hair for me to play Sarah. So I was looking for a haircut that I thought would embody how I viewed Sarah to be. And then, Blair [James], the costume designer, got everything aligned, and then she came together visually, and that was the really fun part of the process.

Digital Trends: Awesome. What was it like working with everyone on the set of this film? I’ve seen behind the scenes [footage]. It seems like you were all having the time of your lives on it. So I wonder if you can tell us more about that.

Lawless: Oh, we did have the time of our lives. It was just incredible. I say this time and time again, but I’ve never been so close with my castmates…and crew members than I have been with Obsession. Me and Inde, she slept in my bed. We had sleepovers twice last weekend, and we do so much together.

And me and Haley Johnson, our producer, I can call her up anytime. And we also hang out outside of work. We are really good friends. I’ve developed such deep friendships with people I work with. We throw game nights sometimes, and we still are maintaining a really great friendship and rapport.

Even after stopping filming and after the film has been released, we’re making an effort to keep seeing each other. And that has never happened for me to this level. And it’s just another huge blessing that comes out of Obsession. It’s just so special, every part of it.

Digital Trends: That’s really fantastic to hear. It’s so great to have a community of friends [who] get together to make films together. It’s just really great to see that dynamic brought to life on the screen.

Speaking of Inde, I’ve seen videos online. You really seem like the best of friends right now. But compared to your characters in the film, they were really clashing over what was going on. A lot of the terror came from [Inde’s] character as Nikki. Were there times during the production where you were genuinely terrified of her and what she was bringing to the film?

Lawless: I must say, no. Inde does not genuinely terrify me because I just know her so well, and it’s hard to remove. But I will say that I was constantly in awe of her performances. I just thought they were incredible. The way she would transform.

But yeah, behind all the movie magic and like, just in between takes coming and being able to joke around and have fun, that removed all of the fear for me when I watch it now as a whole. I watched it in a theater or something. Then I can remove myself from the story and really be engaged with the story from more of an outside perspective, I would say, but never on set.

Digital Trends: Right. And speaking of story, one of the most talked about parts of the movie is that scene in the car when Nikki attacks you with that brick. That had my jaw on the floor. It was so shocking, and the tragedy [that] comes afterwards after Bear opens that acceptance letter. That broke my heart. So I was wondering if you could tell us more about what you thought about that scene being in the film.

Lawless: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, I loved the scene. I had a feeling, even before I started reading it, that my character would be killed off. All anyone can hope for is that her death scene is iconic, and people will talk about it, and it will really make audiences feel something. And I can say without a doubt…it really is a strong moment in the film where everything changes for Bear.

It’s the catalyst that leads us to the finale of the film, and it’s just so momentous, and I love how much gravitas it has. When I was reading it, it was just so insane, I was really stoked about it. And I was really curious as well to see how we would pull all the pieces together to make it happen. So the whole process was really fun, making that scene what you see on the film.

Digital Trends: Absolutely. I mean, it reminded me of this similar scene from The Haunting of Hill House…There’s, like, a similar jump-scare sort of scene in the car that changes everything. And I got that same feeling watching that scene in the theater.

And another thing I was really intrigued by the film is the dynamic between Sarah and her friends. With Bear, Ian, and Nikki. Once the wish has been made and Freaky Nikki is just dominating [Nikki’s] life, everyone just tries to keep [their] distance while saying she just needs psychiatric help, not knowing what’s really going on with her. But it really feels like they’re just trying to distance themselves from the issue.

In your opinion, do you think Sarah really considers Nikki like a friend or more just [as] competition for Bear’s affection?

Lawless: I was talking about this the other day a little bit with Inde, actually. I think they’ve been friends for a long time. But I think this is one of those friend groups where they go way back. They’ve known each other since high school. And I think this might be a point in their lives where, if the events of the film didn’t unfold, they would start moving in different directions.

So they’re moving on to different chapters of their life. I want to go to art school. Nikki wants to quit [her] job so that she can work more on her writing. And so it might be a friend-group dynamic [where] they’ve outgrown each other a little.

I definitely think Nikki and Sarah are friends, and they’ve known each other a while, and obviously, at the start of the film, I’m comfortable enough with Nikki to confide in her that I have feelings for Bear, and that’s why she brings it up to Bear in the car that Sarah was talking about [him] all day. You know? She has a crush on [him]. And we definitely have a good enough friendship to have that sort of rapport.

But I think from Sarah’s perspective, when everything starts to unfold, and her friend has now kind of betrayed her. She exposed her feelings for Bear to Nikki, and then all of a sudden, Nikki is dating Bear the next day.

I think that would feel like a huge betrayal and probably sows a lot of seeds of doubt in Sarah’s mind [about] her friend and these friendships that she has… and she is trying to figure out why her friends would change their tune so suddenly.

And it must feel kind of personal. It would feel personal, or personal to me, if my best friend started dating the guy I’ve been telling her all about that I like the next day. [It] would feel like an attack.

Digital Trends: Right. Going back to what you said. The wish is really what causes the friend group to unravel. Part of me was wondering, “If Bear had never made that wish, do you think he would have ended up with Nikki, or would he have eventually been with Sarah?”

Don’t get me wrong. What he did later on in the film was awful. But there was some glimmers of hope for all their characters before that fateful wish.

Lawless: Yeah. I’m not quite sure what would have happened. I like to believe that Sarah was close to telling Bear herself about her feelings. I even like to believe at [the trivia night], she has been telling Nikki about her feelings, and Nikki’s supposed to probe it all and eventually [Sarah] would get to tell Bear how she feels. After gauging his feelings, though, Bear has no feelings for her. So maybe, if she had heard that, she would have been like, “OK, never mind.”

I shouldn’t even try, but I think without the wish…Bear is not suitable to be in any relationship. [They] are mature enough to avoid someone that, if they were to get keyed on in that, they would avoid being with Bear because they understand that he has a lot of development and growth that he needs to work through before being in a relationship.

Digital Trends: Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Sometimes in these situations, people just kind of like to learn to be comfortable with themselves before they can really be with others. So that’s something that Bear was never able to really get over. He was so desperate not to be alone that he basically just destroyed everyone’s lives.

Lawless: Yeah, that is just really, really dangerous…It’s just really damaging for all parties.

Digital Trends: Absolutely. So, after Obsession, what other projects are you working on right now?

Lawless: So I’m going to start filming another project, another film, it’s a thriller, next month. I’m not quite sure if I can name what it is, but you’ll see something in the news soon, I’m sure. I think there’ll be an article that is released about the cast eventually. But I do have plans to do that. And then, that’ll be really fun, another feature horror. Totally different kicker, which I like.

And then, we’ll see about that. I’ve been talking to a lot of people, meeting a lot of people, and reading a lot of scripts. So the possibilities are kind of endless. And it’s very exciting. I would love to do another film, but like a drama or work on a show, a dramatic show. I would love to just really explore my craft even more on a larger scale. So we will see.

Digital Trends: Yeah. I’m really looking forward to seeing whatever you do next. I think it’s going to be really great.

Lawless: Aw, thanks.

Digital Trends: Oh, you’re welcome. Now, as far as the future, I mean, do you see yourself working with Curry and anyone else from Obsession again? I know the cast of Curry’s next film, Anything But Ghosts, was just announced, but what about his Texas Chain Saw film? Do you see yourself working with any of them?

Lawless: Absolutely. I would love to work with all of them again. I got the opportunity to work with Haley Johnson, our producer, again on a short that we did before Obsession actually came out in theaters, but after we had filmed Obsession. And it was just so nice to have so many crew members and stuff, all of us together, because sometimes when you film, it’s like you wrap, and then you don’t get the opportunity to relive what you just did. This incredible thing you just did.

I would just love to work with Curry again. I would [with] Inde again. I mean, the whole cast I would work together again…you never know. We’ll see how things pan out. But we all have such good relationships with each other. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Digital Trends: That’s all really terrific to hear. I can’t wait to see what you all do next.