Why ‘Robin Hood’ is already missing the mark

As HBO’s medieval fantasy series, Game of Thrones became a worldwide phenomenon, major Hollywood studios took notice and have been trying to adapt medieval tales to the silver screen. However, their attempts have not reached the heights of the show that captures historical medieval society and mythology accurately to a certain extent.

The most recent attempt, Guy Ritchie’s cockney gangland infused retelling of the story of King Arthur, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, was both a box office and critical failure and recently with the backlash that surrounded the trailer of Lionsgate’s Robin Hood its most likely we won’t see this quasi-medieval film become a success either.

The majority of this backlash comes from what one would call the main target audience for fans of Game of Thrones and those that enjoy medieval based content, medievalists, those that have a passion for medieval history and culture. One such medievalist, is Matt Easton, a European martial arts teacher, consultant, and popular YouTuber. Recently on his channel, he posted a video in which he broke down all of the things that should and should not appear in the trailer.

From the overabundance of explosions, crossbows that emulate assault rifles, and blatantly no accurate representation of English medieval material culture, their clothes look straight out of Hunger Games, Robin Hood looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Robin Hood completely misses the mark here, and this is just the trailer! While they have elements of the core story, Lionsgate completely ignored the core audience and why they go to these films. Medievalists want to experience the era and the mythology from this period because they themselves can never fully experience it without the use of film and television magic.