Even though ABC’s Once Upon a Time ended eight years ago, the wordplay is too tempting when you hear that Colin O’Donoghue has joined the MGM+ series Robin Hood in Season 2 — he’s officially trading the Enchanted Forest for Sherwood Forest — never mind the near decade in between! During a recent panel at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, O’Donoghue talked about starting production on Robin Hood and what he already hates about his good guy character.
Puns aside, it is kismet that O’Donoghue is going back to another Robin Hood story in a new project. The legendary fantasy character was, of course, heavily featured on Once Upon a Time, though not always in storylines with Hook. During the Fan Expo Canada panel with O’Donoghue, he joked that he “hates Sean Maguire,” who played Robin on Once Upon a Time, even though he told the crowd he bemoans the character’s fate on OUAT.
MGM+’s fresh take on Robin Hood stars Jack Patten, Lauren McQueen, Marcus Fraser, Angus Castle-Doughty, and Sean Bean as familiar characters Robin Hood, Marian, Little John, Friar Ruck, and the Sheriff of Nottingham, respectively. Season 1 premiered in November 2025. On July 16, 2026, MGM+ announced that O’Donoghue was cast in Robin Hood Season 2 alongside James Purefoy and Luke Roberts.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Colin O’Donoghue Will Be Bearded, But Good, in ‘Robin Hood’ Season 2
The subject of Robin Hood season 2 came up at Fan Expo Canada when talking about filming The Gray House — O’Donoghue’s United States Civil War-era drama about the Underground Railroad set in Richmond, Virginia — in Bucharest, Romania. As pleasant as the working environment is, it’s still a little funny to be so far away, geographically, from the story you’re telling. “Likewise,” O’Donoghue said, “Now, I’m filming in Serbia, which is obviously Sherwood Forest. I’m doing Robin Hood […] playing Prince Richard, who, spoiler alert, becomes King Richard. I haven’t really let much out of the bag there [for] Season 2. It’s really interesting. He’s a good guy. He’s not like Prince John, who’s the bad guy.“
Prince John is played by Graeme Thomas King in the series. His character was recurring in season 1, and will be a regular in Season 2. He was, of course, a real figure in the history of the United Kingdom. Shakespeare fans may want to know that O’Donoghue is playing King Richard I, not Richard III, and that Purefoy is playing King Henry II, not any of the Bard’s historical muses. This is the Middle Ages, after all. It’s very rugged compared to most period pieces. “That’s why I’ve got this stupid beard,” O’Donoghue continued, “that I’ve actually trimmed for this weekend. It was even bigger than this, and I hate it.” We’ll have to look forward to seeing just how long the Prince Richard beard is when Robin Hood season 2 premieres.
The timeless tale of Robin Hood seems to really be en vogue these days, between this series, A24’s The Death of Robin Hood, and the big reveal that Paul Greengrass‘ upcoming film The Uprising starring Andrew Garfield is also secretly a Robin Hood origin story. People really want to tell stories about stealing from the rich and giving to the poor these days.
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