Ridley Scott contemplates a sequel to Robin Hood

06 April 2010

Gerard Wood

As we approach the release of Robin Hood, director Ridley Scott has dropped a hint that a sequel is a very real possibility. Suggestions of this kind are only to be expected as the momentum builds toward the release of any blockbuster, but frankly if it involves Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and the legend of Robin Hood, it gets my full attention.

Since it was first rumoured that Scott was considering a revisionist version of the legend, the plot of his Robin Hood appears to have undergone several radical rewrites. Back in 2007 the movie was called Nottingham and Russell Crowe was to play a sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham trying to deal with a less than virtuous thief by the name of Robin Hood. Later the rumour morphed into a bizarre suggestion that Crowe would play both the Sheriff and Robin Hood, and then it was revealed that the Sheriff was in fact Robin Hood in cunning disguise.

It now appears that what Scott has brought to the screen is in fact a more traditional version of the story. Similar to Sergey Bodrov’s outstanding Mongol (2007), Scott’s Robin Hood gives us the early chapters in the man’s life and a study in how the man became the legend: “It is the beginnings of how the man becomes known as Robin the Hood. You don’t really get that until the last few minutes when you realise, ‘Ah this is who he is.’”

Although not promising anything, Scott muses, “Let’s say we might presume there’s a sequel. Honestly, I thought, ‘Why not have the potential for a sequel, particularly if it is a genre that you absolutely love and has never been fully explored?’ If there were to be a sequel, you would have a constant enemy throughout, King John, and you would follow his reign of 17 years. The signing of the Magna Carta could be Robin’s final act.”

While there have obviously been many versions of the Robin Hood story made for the big screen, almost all have romanticised the story to a point of irrelevance. It’s a relief then that the ill-advised "revisions" originally planned for Nottingham were put aside in favour of a long-overdue reinvigoration of the legend of Robin Hood by one of the true masters of gritty historical realism. There’s every chance that Scott’s movie will become the definitive telling of this enduring tale of the rebel with a cause.

Robin Hood is due in cinemas in May and stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Matthew Macfadyen, Mark Strong and Max von Sydow amongst others.

Update: Read our review of Robin Hood.

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