This New Epic Historical Period Piece Is the Perfect Robin Hood Replacement

An arrow flies true from its string, whipping past mossy trees and embedding into a gilded cart guarded by richly armed knights protecting a cache of King John’s wealth. What comes next is all too familiar to audiences; the entrance of England’s outlaw, Robin Hood. This iconic hero has dominated Hollywood’s swashbuckling and action genres for a century. From Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner to Russell Crowe, it’s hard to resist playing the medieval hero.

However, there is an equally exciting hero from Switzerland who never truly got the same hype and fame on the big screen that Robin Hood has. Monuments stand in his honor, his existence is questioned as much as Robin’s, and his fighting against lordly oppression has made his name a rallying call in Switzerland for the power of the people. To top it off, he also wields a bow, except it’s a crossbow since it was a prime weapon of more mountain cultures in medieval times. His name is William Tell, and a new film has been released that finally gives this hero his due.

William Tell is Taking Over as Robin Hood

There are only so many ways one can adapt the Robin Hood story. Audiences have seen decades of adaptations depicting Robin Hood legends in many styles, but he isn’t the only medieval outlaw to do this in folklore. William Tell’s on-screen history hasn’t been as gilded in glitz and glamor and full of Hollywood’s brightest stars. William Tell’s cinema history is mainly found in Swiss and European co-productions, with a few films and shows made during the 60s, 80s, and 90s. Often, budgets were lower, and some were made in the Swiss German dialect, so transferring them to English wasn’t a priority when their audience for the folk hero was mainly Swiss.

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Yet William Tell’s story is one deserving of a big screen update, and in 2024 the newest film, William Tell, was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. The story of Tell at large is that he was a famed mountain climber and crossbow marksman who was responsible for the assassination of the tyrannical Reeve, Albrecht Gessler who was part of the Austrian Dukes who oppressed the Swiss peasantry. Although released in Europe in September 2024, the story of a layman-turned-assassin seems to be just the right story to tell in light of current events, which makes the optics of this film’s later North American release even more interesting.

William Tell is about a Legendary Man and Crossbow

• Crossbows were more effective weapons at large because they were easier to learn than longbows. Making it accessible to those needing to raise arms quickly.
• Many European nations were known for their crossbow regiments. The Swiss, Genoese, and Sammarinese are a few of-note.

The image and story of William Tell have been used as a national symbol of Swiss solidarity throughout the centuries. From a folk hero of the peasant revolutions to a big-budget movie hero, it’s about time William Tell received more exposure to audiences outside of Europe in a bigger way than before. This newer retelling of the legend does a good job of grounding the drama as a historical epic rather than the usual swashbuckling action-adventure that Robin Hood often receives. In the past, films and television series of William Tell have also been given such treatment, especially in the 90s when one show added a wild fantasy element that just didn’t fit. In light of recent media thirsting for more historical accuracy, especially in wardrobe and atmosphere, William Tell gives audiences that immersive flare. Games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II have really built excitement for the later medieval periods amid history-lovers, and although it would seem gamers and moviegoers are separate audiences when it comes to historically-based epics, there is a great convergence.

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In one of the more grounded versions of Robin Hood, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood‘s story was treated as a spiritual sequel to his masterpiece about the Crusades, Kingdom of Heaven. This allowed Robin Hood to blend the lines of folklore and history as it added the grit of Richard the Lionheart’s actual death into the mix. With William Tell, the story remains steeped in the peasant revolution and war, using Tell as a catalyst character similar to Scotland’s William Wallace from Braveheart. The film’s villains are a bit accentuated amid the grit of the film, but overall, William Tell‘s narrative thrusts the audience into the heat of a medieval revolution.

William Tell is Bolstered By a Strong Cast

• Ben Kingsley won a Best Actor Academy Award for playing Gandhi in Gandhi.
• King Albert was a Habsburg, part of a dynasty that ruled over the area for centuries, which was the cause of many revolts and revolutions.

Even though some of the leads are not completely familiar to a Hollywood-only audience, many will know Ben Kingsley as Austria’s tyrant King, Albert. Pirates of the Caribbean and Game of Thrones‘ Jonathan Pryce is also present, as well as Sex Education‘s Connor Swindells and Diarmaid Murtagh from Vikings, to name a few. The cast is a massive blend of talent from recent and classic media, which gives freshness to the heroes and villains that audiences are thirsting for in a time when some casts are chosen by their social media clout. The titular hero, William Tell, is played by Claes Bang, a Danish actor and musician, who is more familiarly known for his role in The Northman.

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William Tell has been a massive opportunity for Bang to define himself as a great leading man in the Epic genre in Hollywood and beyond. Since Robin Hood is so often taken up by already big A-listers, William Tell is a fresh opportunity to bring in a new face to the folk-hero subgenre of historical epics and fantasy films. The beauty of William Tell as a more modern hero of a bygone era is that he has always been a working man and peasant, whereas Robin Hood’s story has evolved over the ages to make him palatable to the upper class by making him a disenfranchised Lord. In a way, William Tell is far more of a hero by and for the people now than he has ever been, and audiences should give it a watch in the nearest theater or streaming platform they have available.

William Tell

Release Date

February 21, 2025

Runtime

133 Minutes

Director

Nick Hamm

Writers

Nick Hamm