Turns out Andrew Garfield is playing Robin Hood in The Uprising

With little more than two weeks before its September 10 release, Greengrass’ The Uprising now invites moviegoers to “witness the rise of Robin Hood,” which we have to assume means that Garfield, whose scythe-toting role is still being referred to as “the Ploughman” in press materials and interviews, plays the legendary, and by most historical accounts, fictional English hero. In the eyes of the more severe historical buffs, such a showy reveal could sap some of the thematic immediacy from a film that delves into the perennially relevant Uprising, also known as the Peasant’s Revolt, especially when all marketing for the film had previously made zero mention of Robin Hood—aside from one fleeting glimpse of a hooded archer, who could have been anybody, really.

Focus Features, which is distributing the film in the United States, recently posted a revised, Hood-focused teaser on X, mystifying some with the creative choice to further crowd out Wat Tyler’s historical significance by featuring a universally known entity whose inclusion in the revolt isn’t necessarily a thing. Squint, however, and you might see where Greengrass is going with this. History tells us that the first documented reference to the Robin Hood myth appears in William Langland’s narrative poem Piers Plowman (Garfield? Maybe!), written between 1360 and 1387, and that it was appropriated by a priest-leader named John Ball during Wat’s Revolt. So, in a sense, the spirit of Robin Hood—taking back from the rich and redistributing to the poor—did indeed play some role in the Peasant’s Revolt. What’s the harm in cramming the legend himself in, too? Why so coy, Focus Features?

Well, the dim box office returns for Hugh Jackman’s The Death Of Robin Hood earlier this summer might have contributed to Focus’ decision to bury the arrowed lede of Uprising in the first place. Perhaps Garfield’s Hood will have better luck when the newly minted The Uprising: The Rise Of Robin Hood hits theaters on September 10. Still, that’s plenty of time to digitally squeeze in other notable and beloved titans of yore, such as Wallace and/or Gromit, Sherlock Holmes, or the immortal Mr. Humphries from Are You Being Served?