Director Christopher Nolan won two well-deserved Oscars for 2023’s Oppenheimer, and Hollywood was soon buzzing about what his next project might be. A vampire period piece, perhaps? Or maybe a reboot of 1983’s Blue Thunder or British 1960s spy series The Prisoner? Instead, Nolan chose to adapt one of the greatest epic sagas in history: Homer’s Odyssey. At long last, Universal has released the first official trailer for Nolan’s The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon as the wandering Ithacan king. Frankly, it looks appropriately epic.
Most of us read some version of The Odyssey in high school, so we’re familiar with the story: Odysseus, legendary Greek king of Ithaca, begins the long journey home after 10 years of fighting in the Trojan War. (We actually catch a glimpse of the famous Trojan horse in the trailer.) But the journey does not go smoothly, as Odysseus and his men encounter the cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens, and an enchantress named Circe, among other obstacles. Meanwhile, his long-suffering wife Penelope is warding off hundreds of suitors eager to usurp Odysseus’ position.
It’s difficult to underestimate the tremendous influence Homer’s epic has had on global culture. Nolan himself recalled seeing the Odyssey performed as a school play when he was just 5 or 6 years old. “I remember the Sirens and him being strapped to the mast and things like that,” he recently told Empire. “I think it’s in all of us, really. And when you start to break down the text and adapt it, you find that all of these other films—and all the films I’ve worked on—you know, they’re all from the Odyssey. It’s foundational.”
In addition to Damon, the cast includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son, Telemachus; Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s many suitors; Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king, Menelaus; Benny Safdie as the Achaean commander during the Trojan War, Agamemnon; John Leguizamo as Odysseus’ faithful servant, Eumaeus; Himesh Patel as his second-in-command, Eurylochus; Will Yun Lee and Jimmy Gonzales as crew members; and Mia Goth as Penelope’s maid Melantho. We also have Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Lupita Nyong’o in an as-yet-undisclosed role.
The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, 2026.
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