As audiences become increasingly frustrated with the way classic characters are reimagined on the big screen, the producers of these adaptations continue to brag about how progressive and ‘diverse’ their work is – usually achieved through token gestures like race-swapping the character, or even more commonly, gender-swapping fan-favorite characters from the source material.
For some reason, Hollywood’s proclivity for race-swapping characters has become a joke in and of itself, especially when it comes to red-haired ladies. Most recently in the ‘Witcher’ adaption, in which the fan-favorite blue-eyed and red-haired Triss Merigold is played by an actress who is eerily similar to the descriptions found in the novels and games. But we’ve talked about the removal of red heads in the movies to death already.
But on the heels of news that Robert Rodriguez is developing an updated, gender-swapped version of the classic old southwest vigilante tale Zorro for the CW network with writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez, comes this eye-roll inducing announcement that Canada’s Global Network is developing Robyn Hood, re-inventing the English folk hero as a modern-day tale of a woman of color who goes by the moniker ‘Robyn Hood,’ and is the leader of a masked hip-hop band, The Hood, from Sherwood Towers.
Julien Christian Lutz, aka Director X, known for his signature music videos for artists including Drake, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, Usher and Justin Bieber — has created the Canadian indie TV drama Robyn Hood for Boat Rocker Studios and Global Television.
The one-hour action drama, also from screenwriter Chris Roberts (Orphan Black, Frontier), will shoot in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, and debut on Canada’s Global network in 2023. There’s no word on casting, but the eight-episode drama will offer a modern take on the Robin Hood legend.
The plot centers on a fearless young woman, Robyn Loxley, whose masked hip-hop band, The Hood — from Sherwood Towers, a cluster of rental high-rises in a working-class corner of New Nottingham — learns to fight for what’s right and hold those in power to account by using their greed against them to help their community.
If there was doubt Robyn Hood will be as “politically correct” as possible, the director adds the following.
“This is the perfect time to modernize Robin Hood,” Lutz said in a statement. “We are currently living in the gilded age 2.0, where billionaires have way too much and the poor have far too little. We need someone to fight for justice!”
Hollywood is truly bereft of ideas.
