A medieval revolt hits the cinema with Andrew Garfield
On October 30, 2026, Spanish cinemas will welcome The Uprising, released in Spain as El hombre que desafió al rey, a historical blockbuster directed by Paul Greengrass that recovers one of the most important popular uprisings in medieval England.
At the head of the film is Andrew Garfield, accompanied by Cosmo Jarvis, Jamie Bell, Tom Hollander, and Thomasin McKenzie.
Greengrass, known for his way of shooting scenes of great tension and historical events, delves here into an era marked by social inequalities, taxes, and the consequences of the plague.
The film takes the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 as its starting point, but places its characters at the center of the events to show how a protest by thousands of peasants against the power of the crown grew into a rebellion that marched toward London and ended up threatening King Richard II himself.
The production began filming in September 2025 and ended in December of the same year, and no serious problems were documented during that time that forced the filming to stop.
The main known difficulty was related to the sheer magnitude of the filming: large crowd scenes, numerous historical locations, and thousands of extras made The Uprising an especially demanding production.
Recreating the large popular gatherings also required a huge number of participants, and the production went as far as seeking 5,000 extras for certain scenes, a figure that gives an idea of the scale of the sequences dedicated to the uprising.
The plot of El hombre que desafió al rey: When the peasants marched on London
The film follows a countryman played by Andrew Garfield as tension rises among the population, until the discontent ends up turning into a rebellion led by figures such as Wat Tyler, played by Cosmo Jarvis, and the preacher John Ball, brought to life by Jamie Bell.
Then, the insurgents advance toward London while young Richard II faces a situation that threatens to slip out of his control.
The film reconstructs that moment in English history from the perspective of those who decided to challenge the established order and confront a power that seemed impossible to question.
A medieval England reconstructed in Bavaria
Although the story takes place in England, the production team found the necessary settings in Bavaria to reconstruct that medieval world; therefore, filming took place in locations such as the old town of Nuremberg, the Fränkisches Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim, the Lichtenau fortress, and Penzing Studios, near Munich.
Thus, the historical streets of Nuremberg provided the urban look, while the Bad Windsheim open-air museum preserved structures capable of representing the rural life of the era.
The historical setting occupies an essential place in the film; the dwellings, paths, and buildings preserved in the locations used during filming provide the physical environment of a medieval society where the difference between social classes was present in every aspect of daily life, and the costumes follow that same logic. Peasants, soldiers, clergy, and members of the privileged classes present a differentiated appearance that helps to identify their position within that society. The garments thus accompany, providing a strong visual weight, a story in which economic differences have a decisive weight.
