The Uprising Robin Hood movie reveal, two weeks before release, has split the film’s own distributors. Focus Features, which handles the US, now bills Andrew Garfield‘s 1381 Peasants’ Revolt epic as The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood. The film’s UK distributor says the American marketing is wrong.
For most of its run-up, The Uprising was pitched as a film about the Peasants’ Revolt, the 1381 rebellion against Richard II’s poll tax. Focus Features announced the new full title on X this week, alongside a synopsis that reads: “[Garfield’s character] forms an army of the people to face the King’s might in a fight for justice.” New footage shows Garfield as a hooded figure with a bow, stopping a carriage in a forest. IGN’s explainer on the swap asks outright whether the film is a Robin Hood movie.
The Uprising Robin Hood connection: what we know
Asked by Metro, Entertainment Film Distributors rejected the framing outright:
“The Uprising is a historical epic about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, not Robin Hood. The UK marketing campaign does not make any reference to Robin Hood. Marketing materials posted by other countries that may appear in the UK online and on social media referencing Robin Hood are not issued or approved by us.”
Entertainment Film Distributors, to Metro
Robin Hood’s traditional setting is the reign of Richard the Lionheart, who died nearly two centuries before the revolt the film depicts. The project was announced in 2022 under the title The Hood. It also lands as the second Robin Hood film of 2026, after A24’s The Death of Robin Hood — starring Hugh Jackman — recouped less than half its production budget worldwide.
Who stars in The Uprising?
Garfield plays a character billed only as “the Ploughman”, a name that nods to William Langland’s Piers Plowman, the 14th-century poem containing the first written reference to Robin Hood. Cosmo Jarvis plays Wat Tyler, the revolt’s real leader. Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Jonny Lee Miller, Thomasin McKenzie and Katherine Waterston co-star.
The Uprising opens at VOX Cinemas in the UAE on 10 September, a day before the US release; the UK gets it on 9 October. Whether audiences get a revolt epic, a Robin Hood film, or both appears to depend on which distributor they ask.
Is The Uprising based on a true story?
The 1381 Peasants’ Revolt really happened: led by Wat Tyler, it was a mass rebellion against Richard II’s poll tax. The Robin Hood framing in the new marketing is the contested part — the US distributor sells the film as the story that inspired the legend, the UK distributor says it is a straight historical epic.
Who plays Robin Hood in The Uprising?
No one is credited as Robin Hood. Andrew Garfield plays a character billed only as ‘the Ploughman’, who the new synopsis ties to the origins of the legend. Cosmo Jarvis plays Wat Tyler, the revolt’s real leader.
When does The Uprising come out in the UAE?
The Uprising opens at VOX Cinemas in the UAE on 10 September 2026, a day before the US release. The UK release follows on 9 October.
