Christopher Nolan Jokes ‘Batman Begins’ Was “Consolation Prize”

After 20 years, Christopher Nolan is finally getting his ancient Greek cinematic moment with his upcoming adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

The 2x Oscar winner recently joked that his directing gig on Batman Begins was a “consolation prize” after a shuffling of projects ended up with director Wolfgang Petersen returning to Troy after his Batman vs. Superman was scrapped at Warner Bros., only for the studio to give Nolan reins to the Dark Knight.

“I was originally hired by Warner Bros. to direct Troy,” he told Empire. “Wolfgang had developed it, and so when the studio decided not to proceed with his superhero movie [Batman vs. Superman], he wanted [Troy] back.”

Nolan continued, “At the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore. So it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time. Certain images, particularly. How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.”

After moving on from Warner Bros. with his 12th film Oppenheimer (2023), winning seven Oscars and surpassing $975M globally for Universal, Nolan announced The Odyssey has his next collaboration with the studio last December.

Nolan told Empire, “As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with—Ray Harryhausen movies and other things—I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”

Premiering July 17, 2026 in IMAX, The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Mia Goth and more.