The Odyssey (2026 film), directed by Christopher Nolan

The Odyssey is a 2026 epic action-fantasy film written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan, adapted from Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey. Produced by Universal Pictures and Nolan’s Syncopy, the film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, king of Ithaca, alongside Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Samantha Morton as Circe, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, and Benny Safdie as Agamemnon. With an estimated production budget of $250 million and a running time of 173 minutes, the film is among Nolan’s largest and most expensive productions. It is also notable as the first feature film shot entirely with IMAX 70 mm film cameras.

The story follows Odysseus’s long journey home after the Trojan War, but Nolan presents the narrative partly out of chronological order. Ithaca has been without its king for twenty years, and Penelope is surrounded by suitors who hope to take Odysseus’s throne. Their son Telemachus leaves in search of information about his missing father. Meanwhile, Odysseus is trapped on the island of Ogygia by Calypso and gradually reconstructs his memories of the war and his disastrous voyage home. The film revisits many of the best-known episodes from Homer: the Trojan Horse, the encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus, the witch Circe, the journey into Hades, and the dangers posed by the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis. After his companions violate a divine prohibition by killing the cattle of the Sun God, a storm destroys their ship, leaving Odysseus as the sole survivor. Eventually he escapes Ogygia and returns secretly to Ithaca.

Nolan significantly reinterprets the ending and moral character of the Homeric hero. Odysseus returns burdened by guilt over the Trojan War and the destruction caused by the Greeks. Disguised on Ithaca, he reunites with Telemachus and eventually confronts Penelope’s suitors. Penelope announces the famous contest in which her future husband must string Odysseus’s bow and shoot through a row of axe heads. Odysseus succeeds, reveals himself, and—with Telemachus—defeats the suitors. Nolan nevertheless departs from Homer by having Odysseus relinquish his throne to Telemachus and leave Ithaca with Penelope, seeking peace rather than restoring his former life. These changes form part of the film’s broader attempt to portray Odysseus not simply as a heroic warrior but as a man psychologically transformed by war.

Nolan began developing the film after the enormous success of Oppenheimer. He studied several English translations of Homer, including those by Emily Wilson, E. V. Rieu, and Robert Fagles, while seeking a mixture of realism and mythology. Filming took place between February and August 2025 in numerous countries, including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, Malta, and Western Sahara, as well as in Los Angeles. The production emphasized large-scale location shooting, practical effects, real ships and physical sets, supplemented by visual effects. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema continued his long collaboration with Nolan, while Ludwig Göransson composed a score combining electronic elements with bronze instruments, ancient-style lyres and auloi, folk vocal traditions and unconventional percussion.

The film premiered in London on July 6, 2026, and was released theatrically in the United States and United Kingdom on July 17. Its release became a major cinematic event, particularly in IMAX and other premium formats. According to the Wikipedia article, by August 5 the film had earned approximately $988 million worldwide, after a remarkably strong opening; Variety reported a $264.1 million worldwide debut, the largest global opening of Nolan’s career.

Critical response was generally highly positive, especially toward Nolan’s direction, scale, cinematography, action sequences and ambitious treatment of ancient mythology. At the same time, the adaptation generated substantial debate. Classicists and critics questioned its departures from Homer, its modernization of Odysseus’s morality, the treatment or omission of several female characters, its historical inaccuracies in armor and ships, and its use of modern American English.  The film nevertheless became a major cultural phenomenon, stimulating renewed discussion of Homer and even a significant increase in sales and library demand for translations of The Odyssey.

At a thematic level, Nolan’s The Odyssey treats the ancient epic as both an adventure and a meditation on memory, time, personal responsibility, war trauma, moral injury, human autonomy and the fragility of civilization. The traditional Greek principle of xenia—the reciprocal obligations between guest and host—becomes particularly important as a symbol of the social rules that war destroys. Thus, while preserving the monsters, gods, voyages and heroic confrontations associated with Homer, Nolan transforms the ancient story into a distinctly modern examination of what happens to individuals and societies after prolonged violence.