Trailer Reaction – The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan is making THE ODYSSEY.

The actual Odyssey. Homer. Odysseus. The cyclops. The sirens. The whole thing.

And he’s shooting it on IMAX film.

I need to sit down.

Okay so the trailer dropped and I have. Feelings. Many of them.

First let’s talk about what we actually see. Not much in terms of plot but that’s Nolan trailers for you. We see ocean. A LOT of ocean. We see a ship that looks practical — like they actually built a ship — getting tossed around in storms. We see Matt Damon looking weathered and haunted. We see Anne Hathaway who’s presumably Penelope. We see Tom Holland in some kind of armor. We see what might be Zendaya as a goddess or a witch or something. And we see a MASSIVE practical set piece that I think is meant to be Scylla and Charybdis.

The scale looks insane. Genuinely insane. Nolan shooting Homer’s epic on IMAX film feels both completely unexpected and completely obvious. Of COURSE he’d want to tackle one of the foundational texts of Western literature. Of COURSE he’d want to do it practically. Of COURSE the water stuff would look terrifying.

The cast. Jesus. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson (who’s in here somewhere), Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o. Nolan really said “give me everyone” and they said yes because it’s Nolan.

My questions. Many. Is this a straight adaptation or is Nolan doing something weird with time like always? The Odyssey has a non-linear structure so there’s plenty of room for Nolan-y narrative tricks. How much is practical versus CGI? The cyclops — how do you do a cyclops practically? Are they leaning into the mythological elements or grounding it in something more historical?

The score in the trailer sounds like Hans Zimmer but apparently he’s not doing this one. It’s Ludwig Göransson who did Black Panther and Oppenheimer. Interesting choice.

Release date is July 2026. That’s a long time to wait. But also. If you’re making an IMAX Odyssey you take as long as you need.

Here’s the thing about Nolan. He makes events. Not movies. Events. You HAVE to see his films in theaters because that’s how they’re designed to be experienced. Oppenheimer was an event. Dunkirk was an event. Interstellar was an event. This looks like it could be the biggest event of all.

A blockbuster adaptation of ancient Greek poetry shot on IMAX film with a hundred million dollar budget and an all-star cast.

This is either going to be incredible or a disaster. There’s no middle ground.

I’ll be there opening night either way.