ocus Features has released the official trailer for The Uprising, a large-scale historical drama starring Andrew Garfield as an ordinary farmer who becomes the unlikely leader of a rebellion against the English Crown.
Set in plague-ravaged 14th-century England, the film follows a farmer known as Ploughman, who has already lost his wife and children to the bubonic plague. When the working people of his village are subjected to increasingly oppressive taxes and unbearable conditions, his anger finally erupts into open resistance.
What begins as one man standing against injustice rapidly grows into an army of farmers, workers and other ordinary citizens. As rebel forces march towards London, Ploughman must lead them against the soldiers of King Richard II in a brutal struggle for justice, freedom and survival.
The story is inspired by the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, during which groups of farmers, priests and labourers rose against the ruling establishment and marched on London. Rather than focusing on kings, queens and aristocrats, the film places the people normally left outside traditional historical narratives at the centre of the action.
The Uprising is written and directed by Paul Greengrass, the filmmaker behind Captain Phillips, United 93, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The director developed the project after becoming interested in the revolt’s themes of inequality, public anger and people feeling excluded from the decisions shaping their lives.
Greengrass has described Garfield’s character as an ordinary, illiterate farmer rather than a conventional action hero. The trailer nevertheless shows him gradually emerging as a powerful revolutionary figure, rallying thousands of people while attempting to retain his humanity as the conflict becomes increasingly violent.
The ensemble cast also includes Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, Katherine Waterston and Sky Yang. Jason Blum, Paul Greengrass, Gregory Goodman, Joanna Kaye, Joe Neurauter and Lars Sylvest serve as producers.
With its muddy battlefields, enormous crowds and raw depiction of class conflict, The Uprising appears to combine Greengrass’ trademark immediacy with the scale of a medieval war epic.
The Uprising is scheduled to arrive exclusively in cinemas on 11 September 2026.
