Christopher Nolan has decided to get a bit more literal with his next epic, by taking to the past and adapting Homer’s The Odyssey, according to a new post on X by Universal Pictures.
The reveal came after months of fans speculating about the filmmaker’s follow-up to Oppenheimer, which won Nolan his first Best Director Oscar along with the prize for Best Picture and five more awards on top of that. Despite guesses that ranged from “helicopter movie” to “period vampire thriller,” nothing came close to the truth of Nolan taking on one of the most famous narratives in human history.
But while Nolan’s choice of adaptation may be ambitious, he’s certainly already assembled a cast that lives up to the hype. While we don’t know what roles anyone is actually playing, we know that Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron on are on board, and there’s still plenty of time for more stars to join the production.
The Odyssey’s original story follows the mythical hero Odysseus in his arduous, chaotic 10-year journey back from the Trojan war. On the road he meets all kinds of strange and dangerous creatures, only to return home and to be greeted by numerous suitors vying for the hand of his wife. Of course, regular Nolan devotees can probably already find areas of the story to speculate about when it comes to how his non-linear style may make itself felt.
According to Universal’s tweet, we can (unsurprisingly) expect the movie to be shot on state of the art IMAX cameras — arguably a Nolan staple at this point — and to be shot “across the world,” in case you somehow thought Nolan was going to forgo his status as a stickler for location shooting on his biggest, oldest epic yet.
The Odyssey is set to be released on July 17, 2026.
