As The Odyssey surpasses $300M after a record opening weekend, conservative critics should be eating their words.
On Tuesday’s episode of The View, panelist Whoopi Goldberg called out social media trolls who have been “losing their minds over the cast” and are “still trashing the movie” amid its box office success, responding to a video of Ben Shapiro complaining that it’s “stupid to cast Elliot Page as a dude” in the Christopher Nolan adaptation.
“Listen, a lot of conservatives who see this are going to feel the same way. That’s okay,” she prefaced. “But I don’t understand. Why go see the movie? If you don’t want to see it, then don’t go see it. Why do you care who’s cast in it?”
Goldberg continued, “I don’t understand this idea that if we hate it, everybody must hate it because we hate it for this reason. You don’t like Elliot Page? Don’t go see the damn movie. Don’t do it. We will be okay if you don’t go see it.”
Fellow panelist Alyssa Farrah Griffin called the movie “a masterpiece,” arguing that despite the “woke” criticisms, the film has “a real conservative message.”
“It’s about devotion to family, it’s about faith, it’s about upholding institutions. It’s about how war is dangerous and has repercussions for all of us,” she explained. “And the fact that conservatives can’t take the win and just be like, ‘oh no, this is a really excellent film with a good message for families,’ I’ll never understand.”
Joy Behar quipped, “but they’re stuck on ‘woke,’” to which Griffin noted, “But there’s nothing woke in this film.”
Sarah Haines also chimed in on the discourse around trans actor Page playing Greek soldier Sinon, following online outrage over speculation that he would star as Achilles.
“There’s a unique ignorance to someone who comments on something they’ve never seen,” said Haines. “You’re taught from a young age, do your research, learn, and then you can join the conversation. But it’s like not voting and then complaining about what you get. You cannot not see the film and complain about how awful it is, when you haven’t seen the film. Because this film—and I echo Alyssa—is a masterpiece.”
Christopher Nolan attends ‘The Odyssey’ premiere on July 11, 2026 in Mumbai, India.
Aalok Soni/Getty Images for Universal Pictures
Tuesday’s segment comes after criticism from the likes of Elon Musk and Matt Walsh over Oscar-winning Black actress Lupita Nyong’o’s dual casting as Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships,” and her sister Clytemnestra. Others have also criticized Nolan for casting Black musician Travis Scott.
Meanwhile, Nolan has dismissed the backlash as “irrelevant” since the movie had not yet been released, noting that it “comes with the territory” of adapting a major piece of IP.
An adaptation of one of the first stories in human history, The Odyssey follows Odysseus (Matt Damon) through the incredible trials and mythical encounters he faces on his decade-long journey home to wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) after the Trojan War.
The film also stars Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Mia Goth and more.
