‘Robin Hood’ on HBO: The Elton John and Ray Charles Team-Up You Didn’t Know You Needed

Have you ever wanted to watch Elton John and Ray Charles steal from the rich and give to the poor? Of course you have! And the good news is, you can—by tuning into Robin Hood on HBO tonight, at 8 p.m. ET. This 2018 action movie was hated by critics and flopped at the box office, but it did bring together two great actors who’ve both embodied piano legends: Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx. And I promise you if you watch this film as an Elton John and Ray Charles team up, you will enjoy it one thousand percent more.

Egerton, who was recently praised for his portrayal of the rockstar Elton John in Rocketman, is Robin, the mythic heroic outlaw that most millennials were introduced to via an animated fox. And speaking of: Foxx, who won the Oscar for his performance as the R&B legend Ray Charles in 2004’s Ray, plays Little John, traditionally Robin Hood’s second-in-command (aka the nice bear in the Disney cartoon). The dynamic is reversed this time: Foxx’s Little John trains Egerton’s Robin Hood in archery and combat, and it’s Little John’s idea to steal from the Sheriff of Nottingham. Well, sure. You wouldn’t expect Ray freakin’ Charles to be a right-hand man, would you? Ray is older, wiser and was a piano prodigy years before Elton—obviously, he would take the lead. Just pretend Foxx is teaching Egerton scales instead of teaching him how to shoot an arrow. And yeah, this Elton is a lot more aggressively straight than the Elton we saw in Rocketman, but he still sneaks a pop of color into his drab outfits.

The film itself, directed by Otto Bathurst, is not the fun-loving take on Robin Hood that Disney gave us in 1973. Nor is it the absurd parody Mel Brooks gave us in 1993. Nor is it the brightly colored adventure Errol Flynn gave us in 1938. Instead, it’s a bloody, clichéd action movie, and not even in a cool way, like the 2010 Ridley Scott movie. In fact, given the fact that it was nominated for three Razzies (for Worst Remake, Worst Supporting Actor for Foxx, and Worst Picture), and given the fact that it was one of the biggest box-office flops of 2018 (it made $84.7 million in the worldwide box office, on a budget of $100 million), it may be one of the least successful Robin Hood films of all time. There are over 70 film and TV adaptations of this story, so that’s quite a feat!

But listen: What other Robin Hood adaptation could boast the perfect set-up for a Ray Charles/Elton John AU in the Sherwood Forest? I think that should be an automatic extra star on any film review. I just checked the fanfiction website, archiveofourown.org, for Ray/Elton fanfictions and tragically, there are none available. But I have a feeling that will change after everyone watches Robin Hood (2018) on HBO tonight. Enjoy!

Where to stream Robin Hood