‘This is censorship babe’: Amazon cut content from ‘Robin Hood’ for U.S. viewers and people think they know why

If ever there were a case for the importance of physical media it’s the subtle and not-so-subtle edits that can be made to movies by streaming platforms. Whether it’s Netflix changing the Skins soundtrack for viewers in the U.S. or Amazon cutting content from Robin Hood (2010), even small changes can completely change a piece of media for better or worse.

In this case a very obvious change has been made to the intro to the Ridley Scott adaptation of Robin Hood (the one with Russell Crowe). The edit was spotted by a woman on TikTok, @theshannonduke0, who shared her findings.

The moment in question happens right at the start of the film and can be seen on Amazon Prime. Shannon records her screen and points out that the intro text is gone. There is just a background of yellowish parchment paper with faded letters, but it’s obvious there was supposed to be some text overlaid on top, and yet, it’s not there.

What did the text originally say?

Luckily for us, there are plenty of versions of this film knocking about so it’s not too difficult to find and read the text that was supposed to be there originally. Shannon delves into the mystery herself and discovers just what the text says.

“In times of tyranny and injustice when law oppresses the people, the outlaw takes his place in history.”

Interesting. Given the current state of politics in America people online naturally came to the conclusion that this text was omitted on account of the message it portrays. Donald Trump’s time in the White House so far has already been described as “tyrannical” and when innocent people are being sent to prison camps in El Salvador I don’t think it’s unfair to say America is living in times of “injustice” too.

The founder and former CEO of Amazon, Billionaire Jeff Bezos, made an appearance at Trump’s inauguration and, even after the Trump tariff debacle, seems to be on pretty good terms with the president. Given that the text at the beginning of the film demonizes the authoritarian rule of those in power while glorifying “the outlaw,” many concluded that this was intentional censorship on Amazon’s part.

Was this really censorship from Amazon?

Responding to Shannon’s video many believed that this was intentional, one individual commented, “Scary, that’s a pretty obscure movie to be censoring like that.” However, others pointed out that the missing text was likely due to it being the “international version” which allows for the text to be changed to the native language of the country it’s being streamed in. If this were the case then the missing text would be a simple mistake and not some sinister attempt at censorship.

However, people from English-speaking countries outside the U.S., such as Canada and Ireland, pointed out that the text was still there for them meaning the U.S. may be the only version where the text is inexplicably missing. Others in the comments claimed that the text has been missing since before Trump became president.

Whether or not this is a case of intentional censorship or not remains unclear but given the growing class tensions in America it’s easy to see why people would suspect Amazon of removing the content on purpose.