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More thoughts on Marian in general than casting thoughts. (I'm more for talented unknowns playing icons -- less baggage that way. Sometimes like Uma Thurman, they become much more famous afterwards.)

I can understand RobeH's dislike of some versions of Marian. A while ago, I was scripting a Robin Hood story that opens after his death with Little John as the primary character, reflecting on his relationship with Robin. I wanted to bring out that wonderful dynamic between Robin and John that exists in the early ballads, and I found it very hard to do so once Marian was added to the mix. For example, with the Death, if Marian's alive still, she should be the principal mourner. If she's dead, that Robin died a widower. I never did solve that problem (as I recall, I was leaning towards leaving her alive but having had the relationship end previously).

Marian often does domesticate Robin -- especially in a novel like Elsa Watson's Maid Marian which seems to strip away all the notable elements of Robin's personality.

But I wouldn't be too down on a lot of the film Marians. From our 21st century viewpoint they are passive, but not for the times in which the films were made. There certainly were Marians (like Diane Keen in the 1975 Legend of Robin Hood, and many ones from children's books) who were completely passive. But the spy in the sheriff/prince's camp role that Olivia de Havilland, Joan Rice, Bernadette O'Farrell and Patricia Driscoll played gave them a sense of power. They may not have engaged in swordplay, but they did risk their lives to make a difference, and not just in their romance of an outlaw. Those four also had personality and weren't shy or retreating. (I remember an impish grin on Joan Rice's face, for example.) I think they all had more character than most girlfriends of heroes.

One of the problems is that Marian is usually just defined as Robin's girlfriend/wife -- as if sole role is her relationship to Robin. Even when I interviewed Robin of Sherwood's creator Richard Carpenter, it was very telling. His description of Marion was the weakest of all characters. "Gentle and deeply in love. Compassionate and loyal." The others got talk about their quest for justice, early socialism and the like. Marion, she's in love and loyal. That's it?

I think that's why you get things like the Prince of Thieves Marian. She's supposed to be tough and strong, but she becomes a damsel in distress pretty easily -- she can't successfully fight the soldiers and the sheriff. She can only beat up Robin and tell him off. This comes from thinking solely of the character in terms of how she interacts with Robin. They toughed her relationship with Robin, but not in any other way. If her sole role is as Robin's girlfriend, just having her sass Robin has the surface appearance of toughness.

The new BBC series does this a bit too, but as cheesy as I think the bad superhero costume is, they at least give Marian a role outside of Robin. She fights injustice not just because she's in love with Robin. I don't think the idea is well-executed, but I think the sentiment behind it is good.

That's why my favourite recent literary Marian is Theresa Tomlinson's The Forestwife. Her Marian has a very distinct identity apart from Robin Hood.

And that's what the character needs.

Some thoughts on other film Marians.

I quite like the in-control-of-herself attitude that Uma Thurman's Marian has. I don't think she does a lot physically, but she's not shy or retreating. (And the only actress to pull off that page-boy disguise effectively.)

As I've been mulling over my long-delayed article on Robin and Marian (and I might end up pulling the stuff I've written on Robin and the Crusades for that article and plop it in an article on the new BBC series instead), I have gained a real appreciation for Audrey Hepburn's performance. Divorcing the dialogue from the performance, I think Marian is written very much like Eleanor in Lion in Winter (by the same writer, James Goldman). She's cold and catty at times and a weepy emotional wreck at others. But Audrey Hepburn never plays her that way. There's a dignity to her performance throughout -- she never descends to the cliches that one could in that role.