The production used all 11 of the Technicolor cameras in existence in 1938 and they were all returned to Technicolor at the end of each day's filming.
The role of Will Scarlett was originally intended for David Niven, but he was vacationing in England at the time, so the part went to Patric Knowles.
The scenes in which Marian is captured by Sir Guy of Gisbourne and then tried for treason are lifts from the Douglas Fairbanks movie, Robin Hood
The Sir Joseph Hooker Oak (called the Gallows Oak in the film) where Robin Hood forms his outlaw band was supposedly the largest living oak tree in the world at the time of filming in 1937. The rock that Errol Flynn stands on in front of the tree is a prop.
The sound of Robin's arrow is the favorite sound of Skywalker Sound's Ben Burtt. He has used that sound in almost all the Star Wars films.
The studio files/records for this film are archived at the USC Cinema Television Library. Interoffice memos clearly indicate that Olivia de Havilland was not the first choice for the role of Marion. The original actress, whose name is blacked out in each of documents, became pregnant out of wedlock, and could no longer accept the role.
The stunt players wore heavy padding underneath a steel breastplate overlaid with some balsa wood to absorb the impact of arrows.
The swords used in the film were made of Duralumin, invented in 1908 by Alfred Wilm.
The theatrical trailer contains footage of Robin and Marian kissing on horseback. This footage is from the deleted final scene of the film, immediately following the closing of the great doors, where the film now ends.
The tune whistled by Little John before his fight with Robin is the medieval English round "Sumer is Icumen In".
This film was originally intended as a much closer remake of the original Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood film.
Two scenes - a jousting tournament and a christening - were cut from the script to save money and were never filmed.
Warner Brothers owned the rights to the original "Robin Hood" operetta, while MGM announced its intention to film a Robin Hood movie at the same time, based on the operetta, with Nelson Eddy as Robin and Jeanette MacDonald as Maid Marian. Warner Brothers agreed, providing it could film a movie called "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with James Cagney as Robin. The MGM film was eventually abandoned.
While filming Robin Hood's escape from the castle, actor Basil Rathbone was knocked down and trampled by extras, causing a spear wound in his right foot which required eight stitches to close.
In The Adventures of Robin Hood, padded stunt men and bit players were paid $150 per arrow for being shot by professional archer Howard Hill, who was cast as Owen the Welshman, an archer defeated in the tournament by Robin.
James Cagney was originally cast as Robin Hood, but walked out on his contract with Warner brothers, paving the way for Errol Flynn, although filming was postponed three years.
Robin Hood was produced at an estimated cost of $2 million, and was one of the first Warner Bros. films to be shot in the three-strip Technicolor process.
Scenes and costumes worn by the characters in Robin Hood have been imitated and spoofed endlessly. For instance, in the Bugs Bunny animated short film, Rabbit Hood, Bugs is continually told by a dim-witted Little John that "Robin Hood will soon be here." When Bugs finally meets Robin at the end of the film, he is stunned to find that it is Errol Flynn, in a spliced-in clip from this film. Other parodies were Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in Robin Hood Daffy and Goofy and Black Pete in Goof Troop's Goofin' Hood & His Melancholy Men.
The Adventures of Robin Hood was Errol Flynn's first film in Technicolor.