2026’s Secret 'Robin Hood' Movie Suddenly Drops on Streaming After Bombing in Theaters

Published Oct 30, 2026, 12:31 PM EDT Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area. This year's strangest rebrand is coming to Peacock very soon Image: Universal Sign in to your Polygon.com account Another 2026 box office flop is heading to streaming after a short theatrical run. The Uprising, which was briefly marketed in the U.S. as The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood, will stream exclusively on Peacock in early November. While it’s become common for theatrical releases to hit streaming after just a few months, even the worst-performing films generally start with Video on Demand services like Prime Video and Apple TV, where rentals cost $20 or more. It seems The Uprising will be skipping this step entirely. The movie was released in U.S. theaters on Sept. 10, 2026, before grossing an unimpressive $8.2 million against a $20 million budget. More pertinent to film fans, The Uprising received somewhat mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike. Only 57% of Rotten Tomatoes critics liked the picture, while 65% of Rotten Tomatoes user ratings were positive. While the film received praise for its performances, relevant social critique, and action, it was criticized for messy execution and a bland aesthetic. Those who didn't catch it in theaters can decide for themselves when the movie hits Peacock on Nov. 6. What is The Uprising about? The Uprising is based on England's 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. It follows “The Ploughman” (Andrew Garfield), a disgruntled farmer still mourning his wife and children in the wake of the Black Death plague. When Richard II’s government decides to raise taxes against the peasantry, The Ploughman leads an uprising against the Crown. Paul Greengrass wrote and directed the film. He’s known for Captain Phillips and the Bourne movies. What does The Uprising have to do with Robin Hood? Just weeks before The Uprising hit theaters, the movie's U.S. distributor, Focus Features, attempted a pivot. After initially framing the film as a realistic historical drama, Focus abruptly rebranded The Uprising with the subtitle “The Rise of Robin Hood” and released new trailers with Garfield’s character wielding a bow while dressed in green. The distributor also released a new summary for the movie that read: "Set against the true events of the Uprising that helped inspire the legend of Robin Hood, [Andrew Garfield's character] forms an army of the people to face the King's might in a fight for justice." However, the movie's U.K. distributor, Entertainment Film Distributors, completely contradicted this Robin Hood framing, writing in a statement to Metro that "The Uprising is a historical epic about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, not Robin Hood. The U.K. marketing campaign does not make any reference to Robin Hood. Marketing materials posted by other countries that may appear in the U.K. online and on social media referencing Robin Hood are not issued or approved by us." Many criticized the sudden change, arguing that the original Robin Hood literature was likely written before the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and thus wasn't an inspiration for the character. Given The Uprising's poor box-office performance, this pivot to a familiar name doesn't seem to have helped the film find an audience.