Robin Hood in the Present and the Future: Wolfshead Through the Ages

Robin Hood in the Present
and The Future
by Allen W. Wright

The previous sections looked at the Robin Hood legends from its medieval beginnings all the way up Robin Hood's appearances in comic books and the many other characters (real and fictional) inspired by Robin Hood.

Now, it's time to assess the Robin Hood legend as it stands today. And where it might be going.

In particular, we'll take a look at recent novels based around the legend of Robin Hood.

Yesterday's Present: Robin Hood in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s
Robin Hood in 2026 and Beyond

Yesterday's Present: Robin Hood in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s

An Explanation

I originally created my Robin Hood site back in 1997. There's a good chance that many of you reading these words now weren't even alive when I first looked at the "present" of the Robin Hood legend and where it was going.

Below is my original assessment of the Robin Hood legend from the late 1990s with a few additional tweaks added at the dawn of the 21st century. After that, we'll look at the legend again from the perspective of the 2020s.

The Original Assessment

So, where's Robin Hood at today? In just the past few years, he's been the star of a cartoon show, another TV series, new pantomimes, and several novels and short stories. Many Robin Hood musicals are racing towards production. Robin Hood's 20th century descendant, Robyn, teams up with the Merry Men's children for time travelling adventures in the Canadian children's TV series Back to Sherwood. People have done science fiction versions of the legend, like in the novel, The Sherwood Game. Or "historical" novels like Nicholas Chase's Locksley and Parke Godwin's novels. Robin and Marian are even medieval detectives in a series of mystery stories by Clayton Emery. I'm told there's even a Robin Hood romance novel or three out there.

Where is Robin Hood headed?

Well, recently, there have been feminist takes on the legend, like Robin McKinley's novel, The Outlaws of Sherwood. Here, it's Marian who splits the arrow. Marian's also the star of Theresa Tomlinson's The Forestwife. In this young adult book, Marian is a healer and leader in her own right. Marian is also the main character in Jennifer Roberson's novels Lady of the Forest and Lady of Sherwood. And Stephen Knight hopes and expects to see more feminist re-workings of the legend. And ecological ones and gay ones.

In the summer of 1999 there was a controversy in the mainstream media when Stephen Knight suggested that there were gay themes in the Robin Hood legend. Since then I've heard of three new Robin Hood tales to be published using gay themes.

And previously a cardboard bad guy, the sheriff's been portrayed in a more positive light. He's an honourable man in Parke Godwin's novels, just a guy doing his job in In a Dark Wood by Michael Cadnum, and a good and uncorruptable man fighting against the corruption around him in The Sheriff of Nottingham by Richard Kluger.

Matthew Porretta is the star of The New Adventures of Robin Hood, as the outlaw legend remakes itself for the age of Xena. (c) TNT

For the most part, there's a trend towards more real history. In most recent movies, he's not wearing lincoln green tights. Novels like Sherwood by Parke Godwin, which sets the Robin Hood story right after the Norman Conquest, weaves Robin in and out of historical events in a much more "realistic" way than some versions.

On the other hand, in The New Adventures of Robin Hood, you can find Robin wearing pseudo-medieval fashions straight from an LA clothing store and Maid Marian dressing like Xena. And dastardly Prince John gleefully sacrifices peasants to Celtic goddesses. This show cashs in on the popular trend of shows like Xena and Hercules. But to be honest, I don't think it captures the charm of the shows which started the trend. Still, it does have a strong following online. Obviously some people like it, and it should introduce new fans to the legend.

I suspect this series will have little impact on the legend as a whole. But who knows for sure? I wouldn't have expected the Arab Merry Man to be come such an essential element to modern versions of the legend.

Robin Hood will continue to take on new forms. I wonder what Robin will be like when I am old and grey. Well, he'll be eternally young and fresh. Of that, I am certain.

Robin Hood in 2026 and Beyond

Looking back at my original assessments, I got a lot right. For one thing, The New Adventures of Robin Hood was a mere blip on the legend eclipsed by later films and TV shows which themselves were eclipsed.

And a lot of the other trends I noted continued to develop..

Recent Movies and TV Shows

Robin Hood continues to appear in a variety of films and TV shows. The 2006-2009 TV series starring Jonas Armstrong, the 2010 film starring Russell Crowe and the 2018 movie starring Taron Egerton all featured Robin Hood as a returning Crusader, and their depiction of the Third Crusade resembled the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have shaped the early decades of the 21st century.

All three were simply titled Robin Hood, but none have taken hold of the cultural imagination as Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner and the cartoon fox had in the decades before.

And speaking of the fox, there are reports that Disney is considering a live-action (or more sophisticated computer graphics) adaptation of their evergreen 1973 cartoon.

2022 saw two Robin Hood-related movies released to streaming services and the like -- The Adventures of Maid Marian starring Sophie Craig and The Siege of Robin Hood starring Paul Allica.

A modern-day adaption of Robin Hood -- or Robyn Hood, to be precise -- was filmed in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It stars Jessye Romeo as Robyn Loxley with a merry band of anti-authoritarian hip-hop artists. It was released in 2023 to undeserved online criticism. It had some very clever modern-day updates to the legend with Marian as a lawyer and Tuck as a computer hacker who had a religious outlook on connecting to the web.

New Robin Hood Movies and TV

MGM+ began airing a new Robin Hood TV series in November 2025 starring Jack Patten as Robin (or "Rob"), Lauren McQueen as Marian, Steven Waddington as the Earl of Huntingdon, Connie Nielsen as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham. (Ironically, Bean is from Sheffield, the Yorkshire city that the old village of Loxley - Robin's legendary birthplace - is now a part of.) As in J. Walker McSpadden's novel and the 1952 Disney film The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, Marian is the daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon .. although the earl is far less benevolent than is traditional.

The series is created by Jonathan English and John Glenn and leans heavily into the conflict between Normans and Saxons. Like most Robin Hood productions, it distorts history somewhat. In this case, it departs from historical reality by suggesting that the Christian Normans converted the Pagan Saxons. (The Saxon kings had converted to Christianity centuries before the Normans became Christians.) It also plays upon the mythic themes like those of Robin of Sherwood. In this case, "Rob" is inspired by tales of Eadric the Wild, and Eadric's wife Godda is said to be the faerie protector of the forest. It is also notable for adding the story from Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham (with some of the changes from Howard Pyle's version.)

But that's not the only major Robin Hood project coming our way. Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer have filmed a movie currently billed as The Death of Robin Hood, written and directed by Michael Sarnoski. It purports to depict a Robin Hood based on the medieval ballad A Gest of Robyn Hode, but presents a Robin more vicious than the medieval legend. Hugh Jackman's Robin Hood is a wild-man looking figure with long grey hair and a beard. (Some of the early websites writing about the film borrowed without permission the Errol Flynn-style image drawn by Mike Grell especially for my site.)

Robin Hood Novels and Novel Perspectives: The Villains and Marian

The 2010 film sprang from a script by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris which featured the Sheriff of Nottingham as the heroic lead, and initial reports had Crowe playing the sheriff. (You can read about the original script in this interview with Ethan Reiff.) Other media reformed Robin's rogues gallery.

Toby Venables has flipped the legend on its head, focusing rather on Guy of Gisborne in his Hunter of Sherwood novels, Knight of Shadows, The Red Hand and Hood. Iain Meadows and Spiteful Puppet Productions have focused on the Sheriff of Nottingham in their award-winning Hood series of audio dramas beginning with Hood: Noble Secrets.

Nathan Makaryk's 2019 novel Nottingham splinters its focus across several characters, detailing the twin paths of returning crusaders Robin of Locksley and his friend William de Wendenal, the man who would become the Sheriff of Nottingham, one less villainous than the standard legend. As for the outlaws, although Robin thinks they are called "the Merry Men", the peasants are actually saying "Marion's Men". Makaryk's 2020 sequel Lionhearts sees a splintering of the legend as various characters, including Marion, pick up the pieces.

Jaime Lee Moyer's 2019 novel Brightfall is narrated in the first person by Marian, as she investigates who or what is murdering the former Merry Men. Moyer's Marian is a follower of the "Old Religion", and the novel's world is populated by magical creatures such as the Fae and a dragon.

Tim Hall aka T.K. Hall's Blind Bowman trilogy features a blind Robin and Marian plays a large part series which began with 2013's Shadow of the Wolf and concludes with 2025's Wild Wood Rising. Like many recent Robin Hood stories, it features a supernatural element but bending toward horror than straight fantasy.

Mandy Webster joined many writers by focusing on Marian, this time the "Young Marian", beginning with her 2015 novel Viper in the Forest. And Meagan Spooner makes Marian the central hero in her 2019 young adult novel Sherwood.

Novels have also featured the children of Robin and/or Marian. Among the most recent is the 2024 novel Robyne of Sherwood by Peter David, where Robyne continues her parents' fight.

The outlaw legend has been very successful in the young adult genre -- with or without fantasy elements. A. C. Gaughen re-imagines Will Scarlet as a girl in her young adult trilogy beginning with the 2012 novel Scarlet.

Diversity in the Forest

Back in the late 1990s, I had already noticed that the idea of one of the Merry Men being a Muslim and/or Black was becoming a standard part of the legend. And that tradition has continued.

Not only are new diverse characters added -- such as Djaq in the 2006 Tiger Aspect/BBC Robin Hood, but now there is diverse casting of the traditional Merry Men. Black actor David Harewood plays Tuck in the third and final season of the Tiger Aspect/BBC TV series. Mixed-race Canadian actress Christie Laing plays Marian in several episodes of ABC/Disney's mash-up of various fairy tales TV series Once Upon a Time. And Jamie Foxx plays Yahya ibn Umar in the 2018 Robin Hood movie, but he tells his English allies to just John, or as he's billed in the film's marketing -- Little John. The 2025 Robin Hood TV series features Marcus Fraser as Little John,

As I mentioned in one of the earliest versions of this page, Stephen Knight caused a stir at a 1999 academic conference by implying Robin Hood could be gay. Judging from my oblique reference at the time, there were various Robin Hood stories exploring LGBTQ+ themes around that time.

I can't remember all of them, but in recent years exploring LGBTQ+ characters and themes in the Robin Hood legend has almost become commonplace. (And in a much more positive way than the old days when you could call the villains "gay-coded" or "queer-coded".)

J. Tullos Hennig's five-volume Books of the Wode series beginning with 2013's Greenwode features a druidic Robyn whose relationship with Gamelyn aka Guy de Gisborne goes from friends to lovers to enemies to lovers.

Two examples appeared in 2016. N.B. Dixon's Heir of Locksley depicts the youthful pre-outlaw adventures of Robin, his friends and his enemies. Will Scathelock is gay, and so it appears is Robin himself as he struggles with his attraction for Will. Her 2017 follow-up Knight of Sherwood and her 2019 finale Earl of Huntingdon explore this further.

2016 also saw the start of the comic book series Merry Men by writer Robert Rodi and artist Jackie Lewis, although at appears to have beren cancelled before its conclusion.. In this series, the bad guy's aren't so much concerned with taxes as inflicting a smothering morality on the land. Rodi and Lewis's Robin Hood is the former lover of King Richard. And yes, of course, there's a Muslim member of Robin's band. It is also only one of many Robin Hood comic books that have appeared in the past few years. We've seen a comic book Robin Hood in his original medieval setting, in fantasy realms, in the modern day and in science fiction settings. There have also been female versions of Robin Hood in the comics.

Anna Burke's 2020 young adult novel Nottingham features a female Robyn in a lesbian relationship with Marian. Most of the outlaws in the novel are LGBTQ+ including a Little John who is a trans man.

Robyn Loxley, the lead character in the 2023 Canadian TV series Robyn Hood, is a Black, bisexual woman, and most of the main cast are not white. (While far from perfect, the show is better than the online critics of the day would have you believe.)

Robin Hood in Historical Novels

In the 1991 novel Sherwood, Parke Godwin shifts the Robin Hood legend from its most common setting in the 1190s to the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest in AD 1066. Stephen R. Lawhead moves the legend not only in time but also space in his King Raven Trilogy, starting with 2006's Hood. Lawhead's novels were set in the late 11th century but the action had also moved from England to Wales.

Author Adam Thorpe invests his 2009 first-person novel Hodd with a phony pedigree with tales of how the fictional manuscript was found and translated. The setting of the 1220s, while slightly after the time of Robin Hood best known to moviegoers, makes Hobbehod, the leading candidate for a historical figure behind the Robin Hood legend. Thorpe uses the ballad Robin Hood and the Monk as his primary source and to person known to us as Much is the narrator. However, Robin isn't the devout Catholic of legend, and more a part of heretic sects such as the Cathars.

Steven A. McKay selects a different historical Robin Hood as the starting point of his Forest Lord series, the Wakefield Robin Hood of the early 1300s, the reign of Edward II and matching the King Edward mentioned in A Gest of Robyn Hode. While the outlaws do encounter the Sheriff of Nottingham, McKay's outlaws largely stick to Yorkshire locations, which were more prominent in the medieval legend. The series began with 2013's Wolf's Head and continues all the way to 2022 with the remaining members of Robin's band solving mysteries, in novellas set after the main novel series.

Angus Donald sets his Outlaw Chronicles in the setting most familiar to people who know Robin Hood from movies and TV. But the action expands into broader historical contexts. The cover of the first novel in the series, 2009's Outlaw, invites the reader to "Meet the Godfather of Sherwood Forest". This spawned an eight-book series concluding in 2016's The Death of Robin Hood. Along the way, Robin Hood goes from being an outlaw gangster to a crusader and a respected lord. Donald's Robin searches for the holy grail and has a key role in introducing Magna Carta. And it is Donald's narrator Sir Alan Dale who suggests Magna Carta's most enduring section:

I'd be happy if I never had to fear being seized and flung into prison and left to die by inches without the chance to defend myself or explain. It is a fate no free man should have to face.
--The King's Assassin: A Novel of Robin Hood by Angus Donald

Since 2020, Donald has continued the series with new novels set in-between the original novels. The latest is 2025's Robin Hood and the Heretic Prince, the 11th in the series but set in 1209 between 6th and 7th novels.

The 2025 novel The Traitor of Sherwood Forest: A Novel by medieval historian Amy S. Kaufman features a revisionist look at the earliest ballads through the eyes of Jane Crowe, a peasant girl who becomes involved with the outlaw gang.

Conference Program for the 2009 Robin Hood academic conference

Looking for the Authentic Robin Hood

The Robin Hood ballads have provided inspiration to the legend since the beginning. But there is a trend in some recent historical novels and films such as the 2010 Robin Hood movie directed by Ridley Scott to claim that they are going back to the original, grittier version of the legend. They often stress that Robin Hood is a more violent figure than the kid-friendly image.

And there are those who continue to comb through the records to find a genuine person at the heart of the legend.

Such claims should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, claiming to present the original Robin Hood. Back in the 17th century, Martin Parker titled his ballad A True Tale of Robin Hood.

And the rooster in the 1973 Disney cartoon also assured us they were giving us "the story of what really happened in Sherwood Forest."

But Robin Hood scholarship has expanded beyond just the medieval legend. For many, including me, the "authentic" Robin Hood is the ever-changing figure of legend. I have attempted to cover this in my website since 1997, and in 2001, Thaddeus Papke launched the Into the Greenwood podcast to also explore the many aspects of Robin Hood.

In October 1997, the University of Rochester hosted the first modern Robin Hood academic conference. There were two plenary addresses. Barrie Dobson looked back at the "Genesis of a Popular Hero", whereas Stephen Knight was concerned with "Directions in Robin Hood Studies".

The International Association for Robin Hood Studies have held a Robin Hood conference every two years since the first one. The medieval legend looms large, but a lot of the focus is on how the the legend has grown and changed. The most recent was held in Poland in 2025.

I attended the 1997 conference and presented at several of the subsequent ones. That same year I started my Robin Hood website. I hope I've played a small part in creating an inclusive view of the Robin Hood legend that's not confined strictly to the Middle Ages.

Robin Hood in Multiple Genres by Authors With Multiple Names

Creators shift between media. For example Jeff Douglas Messer and Robert Akers wrote the play Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood to be first performed in 200, and in 2022, their play became a series of comic books / graphic novels. Steven A. McKay wrote The Forest Lord series, but also contributed to the 2021 video game Hood: Outlaws & Legends, one of many video games that call back to the legend.

The 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood continues to be in the DNA of many modern Robin Hood tales. In 2016, the cast of Robin of Sherwood reunited for a special audio drama Knights of the Apocalypse adapted from an aborted movie script from late creator/writer Richard Carpenter. Various writers contributed new officially-licenced Robin of Sherwood stories to audiobooks, audio dramas and novels produced by Barnaby Eaton-Jones for Spiteful Puppet, Chinbeard Books and AUK Studios.

The most prolific of this new generation of Robin of Sherwood authors is Jennifer Ash who wrote across all the new licensed media, beginning with her audiobooks - Mathilda's Legacy, The Waterford Boy, The Baron's Daughter and The Meeting Place and continuing to the 40th Anniversary audio dramas in 2024 and the 2025 novel The Magic Man.

But Jennifer Ash had already written a Robin Hood-related novel before she wrote tales set in the continuity of a decades-old TV show. In 2015 under the penname Jenny Kane she published a a contemporary romance novel titled Romancing Robin Hood (later republished in 2017). The novel's protagonist is Dr. Grace Harper, a medieval historian who fell in love with the legend thanks to the 1980s TV series. The book alternates between Grace's modern-day problems and chapters from the historical novel Grace is writing, a novel featuring genuine 14th century criminal gangs the Folvilles and Coterels. Mathilda, the protagonist in Grace's novel-within-a-novel is also inspired by the Robin Hood ballads of her day. The medieval portion of the novel was expanded and republished as the historical crime novel The Outlaw's Ransom under her Jennifer Ash penname. Three more novels in The Folville Chronicles series followed.

In 2024, Ash launched a new series with Manuscript Mysteries at the Robin Hood Club. Harriet Danby, who has more than a little in common with Ash's previous character Grace Harper has written a popular TV series based on her 14th century Mathilda novels. She investigates murder and manuscript fraud at a Robin Hood convention. Further novels are to follow.

Ash isn't the only new Robin of Sherwood writer who has written Robin Hood stories in different genres or under different pennames. Tony Lee contributed the audio drama The Trial of Little John in 2018 starring Michael Praed. (Lee later adapted this into a novel in 2023). Previously, Lee had written his own Robin Hood tale with the 2009 graphic novel Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood (with art by Sam Hart).

Tony Lee also wrote a contemporary mystery novel set at a Robin Hood convention with A Quiver of Sorrows, the 12th book in his DI Declan Walsh Crime Thrillers series, published under the penname of Jack Gatland.

But perhaps most interesting of Tony Lee's takes on the Robin Hood legend is the project that didn't get made. In 2016 he sold a script based on a futuristic updating of the Robin Hood legend. It got stuck in development hell, especially after the 2018 Robin Hood film starring Taron Egerton flopped at the box office.

Robin Hood in the Present and the Future ... Literally

A lot of projects have updated the Robin Hood to the present-day or the near future or even more distant futures.

There are three female Robyn Loxleys or Robin Loxleys fighting the good fight.

The first Robyn Loxley is the protagonist of Kekla Magoon's 2015 young adult novel Shadows of Sherwood - the first of the Robyn Hoodlum adventure series. This Robyn is a biracial twelve-year old girl who defies the authorities of Nott City.

The second Robin Loxley is the youthful troublemaker known as the Insurgent Hood who operates in the year 2270 in the 2019 YouTube Premium animated series Sherwood.

And the third Robyn Loxley is the daughter of Black community activist Tressie Loxley. This Robyn fronts a band of masked rappers who dabble in robbing the rich of New Nottingham in the 2023 TV series Robyn Hood.

Robert Muchamore has published ten young adult novels about another twelve-year old outlaw - this one is a male Robin Hood living in modern times rebelling against the oppressive forces who framed his father. The first book Hacking, Heists & Flaming Arrows was released in 2020.

The 2024 TV movie Robin and the Hoods feature a gang of children fighting corrupt real estate developers in the present, while flashing to their rich medieval fantasy life.

The 2023 novel Robin and Her Misfits by Kelly Ann Jacobsen recasts Robin as the leader of a mostly female, queer biker gang.

There are two web-series that adapted Robin Hood as a female student protester.

In 2017, Oh For Cute Productions produced Merry Maidens written and directed by Anya Steiner and starring Sissy Anne Quaranta as Robin.

My journalism alma mater Ryerson released Nottingham in 2018 by director / creator Ayelen Barrios and starring Samantha Levine as Robin aka Rory.

But wait ... there's more!

This list is hardly exhaustive. There are new works about Robin Hood all the time. There are new novels, TV shows, movies, video games, comic books and more -- far more than even I can keep track of.

In the late medieval and early modern period, there were Robin Hood play-games across Britain. Nowadays Robin Hood plays are popping up all over the world.

The legend will outlive any of us.

Where to Go From Here:

PREVIOUSLY:

INDEX: WOLFSHEAD THROUGH THE AGES - THE HISTORY OF ROBIN HOOD

INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORY OF ROBIN HOOD

ROBIN HOOD: THE EARLY YEARS

PART 1: BALLADS AND BACKGROUND

PART 2: MAY GAMES AND MAYHEM

CHANGES TO THE LEGEND:

PART 1: EARLDOMS AND ELIZABETHANS

PART 2: PROTESTANTS AND PROPAGANDA

PART 3: BROADSIDES AND BUFFOONERY

PART 4: REVOLUTIONS AND ROMANTICISM

PART 5: CHILDREN'S NOVELS AND COMIC OPERAS

PART 6: FILMS AND FANTASY

PART 7: COMIC BOOKS AND COPYCATS

Sources and Further Reading:

Click here to view the sources used to write Wolfshead through the Ages: The History of Robin Hood.

Other art and photos are copyright their respective rights holders and used as fair use.

Now that you have studied the history of the Robin Hood legend, check out other parts of my site to learn more.

SEARCH FOR A REAL ROBIN HOOD - Learn about the growth and development of the Robin Hood legend from the medieval ballads to the modern movies and TV shows
GENDERING ROBIN HOOD by Stephen Knight - Professor Knight shares his thoughts around the controversy at the 1999 Robin Hood conference
BEGINNER'S GUIDE - Basic information about the Robin Hood legend as it exists in popular culture
ROBIN HOOD FAQ - The answers to your frequently asked questions about Robin Hood include links to further information
ROBIN HOOD TALES - Read Robin Hood ballads, poems, short stories and comic books
ROBIN HOOD SPOTLIGHT - Detailed reviews of books, ballads, TV shows, movies and more featuring Robin Hood
INTERVIEWS IN SHERWOOD - Interviews with authors, actors, scholars and more

Wolfshead
Through the Ages:
The History of Robin Hood

Robin Hood in the Present
and The Future
by Allen W. Wright

Yesterday's Present: Robin Hood in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s

An Explanation

The Original Assessment

Robin Hood in 2026 and Beyond

Recent Movies and TV Shows

New Robin Hood Movies and TV

Robin Hood Novels and Novel Perspectives: The Villains and Marian

Diversity in the Forest

Robin Hood in Historical Novels

Looking for the Authentic Robin Hood

Robin Hood in Multiple Genres by Authors With Multiple Names

Robin Hood in the Present and the Future ... Literally

But wait ... there's more!

Where to Go From Here:

NEXT:

PREVIOUSLY:

Sources and Further Reading:

Wolfshead Through the Ages:The History of Robin Hood

Robin Hood in the Presentand The Futureby Allen W. Wright

Yesterday's Present: Robin Hood in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s

An Explanation

The Original Assessment

Robin Hood in 2026 and Beyond

Recent Movies and TV Shows

New Robin Hood Movies and TV

Robin Hood Novels and Novel Perspectives: The Villains and Marian

Diversity in the Forest

Robin Hood in Historical Novels

Looking for the Authentic Robin Hood

Robin Hood in Multiple Genres by Authors With Multiple Names

Robin Hood in the Present and the Future ... Literally

But wait ... there's more!

Where to Go From Here:

NEXT:

PREVIOUSLY:

Sources and Further Reading:

Contact Us

Wolfshead
Through the Ages:
The History of Robin Hood

Robin Hood in the Present
and The Future
by Allen W. Wright