When you’ve even lost the Funko critics, you know your movie is in trouble.
Andrew Garfield leads the peasant revolt in Paul Greengrass’ “The Uprising,” and the first reactions — seen below— are mostly mixed-to-negative, which is unusual these days when it comes to first-look social media reactions.
So, what exactly happened at Focus Features with “The Uprising”? In August, a trailer arrived with yet another title: “The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood.” The marketing confusion immediately raised eyebrows, particularly given that the film had previously been promoted simply as “The Uprising.” Did Focus decide, at the last second, to market this movie as a Robin Hood origin story?
An inexplicable marketing blunder. At this point, it’s difficult to know what exactly happened — but it’s not a stretch to theorize that Focus has absolutely no idea how to market this movie. And with lukewarm reviews almost an inevitability at this point, one would imagine “The Uprising” will be a money loser as well.
What’s a real downer is that I want Greengrass to succeed, I really do. He’s made a handful of great films throughout his career, including “Bloody Sunday,” “United 93,” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” He’s coming off last year’s Apple-produced “The Lost Bus,” a watchable disaster movie about wildfires starring Matthew McConaughey, which was sadly dumped on Apple TV+.
“The Uprising” is coming out on September 11, 2026. The film centers on the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, one of England’s most significant uprisings, sparked by economic hardship, political unrest, and heavy taxation. Andrew Garfield stars as the rebellion’s leader.
The rest of the ensemble includes Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, and Katherine Waterston.
Here’s a roundup of the early reactions.
Andrew Garfield leads the peasant revolt in Paul Greengrass’ “The Uprising,” and the first reactions are mostly mixed-to-negative, which is unusual these days