Sean Bean Joins MGM+'s 'Robin Hood' as the Sheriff of Nottingham

MGM+'s new Robin Hood adaptation is starting to take shape. The series found its titular folk hero a few weeks ago in newcomer Jack Patten, an Australian actor whose debut role hasn't even hit screens yet. But his nemesis will wear a much more familiar face: Anglophile favorite Sean Bean (Shardlake) will reportedly play the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Traditionally depicted as the archenemy of Robin Hood, he's most often portrayed as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the population of Nottinghamshire by forcing them to pay unaffordable taxes. It is he (and his interests) who Robin most often robs from, redistributing the money to the poor to help them survive.

In this version of the story, which seems as though it's going to try to tell a slightly more historically accurate (or at least historically based) tale, the Sheriff of Nottingham will be reimagined as King Henry II's cousin, a statesman, and politician who played a key role in the building Nottingham itself. As a result, he must not only contend with the outlaw in the woods but also navigate the dangerous political landscape of twelfth-century England, including the ambitions of Henry's queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the Norman barons jockeying for power.