How Historically Accurate Is Russell Crowe's Robin Hood?

Besides being criticized for its rather mundane story and lack of excitement from Scott's iteration, the one issue that audiences and critics alike picked up was trying to figure out where on earth Crowe's Robin was from. Through the film, Robin goes to sounding from Scottish, Irish, to English and back again. While his co-star Cate Blanchett's accent fit the part, Crowe's input was almost distracting for most of the film. Much to the actor's frustration, the issue was eventually brought to his attention after the film's release when Crowe left an interview after being asked why his character had an Irish inflexion. Only seven years later, after being called out on Twitter, the actor finally put the issue to bed.

In 2018, a film fan tweeted, "Of all the great showbizz mysteries that remain unsolved .... possibly the greatest ....what the f**k is Russell Crowe's accent in Robin Hood?" Crowe responded with a fact dump that his fans were happy to support: "A child born in Barnsley, on his father's death, taken to France at age 6, travels across Europe to the Middle East on foot, fights in the third crusade for Richard I, alongside men from all parts of Britain, Ireland and France & finally returns to England a man in his 40s." Not a bad attempt at a mic drop, if it weren't for the film having Robin born in Barnsdale, 14 miles south of Barnsley.

Ultimately, for every tear in the timeline Crowe and Scott's second epic endeavor had, there were the odd few elements that made "Robin Hood" close to the medieval material that inspired it. Maybe the next brave soul that takes on this legendary hero can steal some of its more successful elements to deliver better results; it is what Robin Hood's famous for, after all.