Andrew Garfield's upcoming film The Uprising is a Robin Hood origin story. Focus Features confirmed the connection this week on social media, catching many fans off guard. The film opens in U.S. theaters on September 10.
The movie has received a new subtitle: The Rise of Robin Hood. A new plot synopsis released alongside the announcement reads, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "Set against the true events of the Uprising that helped inspire the legend of Robin Hood," with Garfield's character forming "an army of the people to face the King's might in a fight for justice."
Many fans had assumed the film, directed by Paul Greengrass, was about the 1381 English Peasants' Revolt and its leader, Wat Tyler. Garfield is credited on IMDB simply as "Ploughman." Cosmo Jarvis plays the real-life Wat Tyler. Other cast members include Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Jonny Lee Miller, and Thomasin McKenzie.
The reveal drew sharp reactions on social media. "This actually kinda' bums me out because as a history nerd I thought someone was actually tackling the Peasants' Revolt, which is a time in history that could make for some epic films we never see," wrote one person on X. "It's a fucking Robin Hood movie?!" wrote another, a post that drew over 13,000 likes.
An Esquire profile of Garfield, published after the Robin Hood reveal, described his character as "a fictional everyman farmer whose wife and children have died in the Black Death and, when the King's men come looking for even more tax money to fund foreign wars, has nothing to lose by taking a stand." The profile noted that his character's "actions — it turns out he's handy with a scythe in more ways than one — turn him into a talismanic figure" in the Peasants' Revolt.
In the same profile, Garfield discussed the historical period directly. "the truth of that period of time was that there were brutal conditions for working-class people, brutal taxation," he said.
The film makes The Uprising the second Robin Hood movie this year. The first, The Death of Robin Hood, starring Hugh Jackman and released by A24, failed to break even at the box office.
The Hollywood Reporter said it reached out to Focus Features for comment but had not heard back at the time of publication. The film opens September 10.
