If You Miss Lord of the Rings, This 3-Season Series Turns a Fantasy Legend Into a Surprisingly Emotional Story

If you are craving more of the Lord of the Rings franchise, you probably aren’t just missing the battles. You’re missing that particular brand of fantasy where the world has rules, grudges, and history, and the heroes look like they haven’t slept properly since the opening credits. It’s the same reason people still circle back to Willow, because its world existed before the camera ever showed up.

That’s why Robin of Sherwood works. It takes the Robin Hood legend and gives it that heavier, myth-soaked treatment. Robin’s (Michael Praed) guide spirit, Herne the Hunter (John Abineri), turns the “outlaw hero” idea into a calling you can’t wriggle out of. If you like your fantasy the way Game of Thrones used to serve it, with loyalty, consequence, and a little dirt under every noble intention, this series is basically four seasons of “yes, but at what cost?”

This Robin Hood Adaptation Is Exactly What Lord of the Rings Fans Need

This Robin doesn’t tumble into the forest performing feats of derring-do. He’s chosen by Herne to save the good folks of England from evildoers. Similarly, what pulls Lord of the Rings fans in isn’t the quest itself, but the way Frodo (Elijah Wood) never really gets to unload his burden. Robin didn’t choose the role, but he continues because he knows saving the oppressed is worth it, albeit super stressful.

You can see the effect of that pressure most clearly in Will Scarlet (Ray Winstone). Born Will Scathelock, he’s a mercenary whose wife Elena (Claire Parker) was raped, beaten, and trampled to death by Norman soldiers. He hunted the men responsible and killed them, then shed his old name for Scarlet, representing the blood on his hands. The show doesn’t let that grief go, pushing him toward a homicidal rage that flares fast and often.

Scarlet sits closest to Boromir (Sean Bean), not because their stories match, but because they occupy the same emotional pressure point inside the group. Both are shaped by loss and pride before the story even begins, both carry a violence that feels earned rather than theatrical, and both react to leadership with a mix of loyalty and resentment that never quite settles.

'Robin of Sherwood' Runs on Dread, Loyalty, and the Kind of Magic You Can't Wash Off

The fantasy here isn’t sparkly, which is good, because the supernatural shows up the way bad news does: half-seen at first, then suddenly you’re in it. Herne is a spirit of the forest. Robin’s sword, Albion, is one of the seven swords of Wayland, “charged with the power of light and darkness.”

The show has that older, creepy Medieval feeling, where the forest looks cold, the castles look unforgiving, and hunger is real. That’s the same reason Mordor works when it’s mostly rock and smoke, yet exhausted faces accept it as their milieu.

The villains still carry weight: the Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) and Guy of Gisburne (Robert Addie) handle the human ugliness like small humiliations and everyday cruelty. Meanwhile, the darker magic sits nearby, such as the demented sorcerer Gulnar, played by The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Richard O’Brien.

The Fellowship Feeling Is There, but It's Messier, Moodier, and More Personal

If you love Lord of the Rings for the sense of a band forming under pressure, with loyalty that’s tested and still holds, you’ll get that here. Robin’s outlaws aren’t a merry band prancing around the forest. They’re people sharing danger, chores, and suspicion… then slowly trusting each other anyway.

Little John (Clive Mantle) isn’t just “the big one,” Friar Tuck (Phil Rose) isn’t just “the funny one,” and Nasir (Mark Ryan) isn’t there to chat everyone’s ear off. The show lets those relationships build through proximity and necessity. That’s similar to the way friendships form when you’re tired and cold, but still show up.

It’s also a series that knows how to let conflict breathe, especially when Robin’s sense of mission collides with what the others can actually live with. In “The King’s Fool,” Robin thinks King Richard (John Rhys-Davies) can solve everything. That sends his group into disagreement because the conflict isn’t about a single decision; it’s about how much faith anyone can afford to have left.

'Robin of Sherwood' Pushes Its Heroes to the Limit

One of the best traits of Robin of Sherwood is that it never glorifies heroism. It treats it as a job that gets handed over before anyone has time to argue. You resent and disagree with it, but still take it on because walking away means someone else will pay the price.

Loss rarely gets resolved, and danger is ever-present. Robin’s team, which also includes Maid Marian (Judi Trott), follows him because they know it’s a worthy cause, despite the danger. Even the young Much (Peter Llewellyn Williams) has to overcome his fears — especially when they go up against The Hounds of Lucifer in “The Swords of Wayland” — and presses on with his found family.

That group dynamic is similar to Lord of the Rings, where the story keeps moving even as the people inside it look increasingly worn down. The legend continues, even when Jason Connery takes on the mantle of “the Hooded Man.” But the show never pretends that being the chosen one is something fun to do.