Christopher Nolan has emphasized making massive blockbuster films for a large chunk of his career. Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, under any other director’s guidance, would’ve been a fairly standard biopic, but was instead blown up to atomic levels of spectacle. The opposite is happening with The Odyssey. Nolan is bringing IMAX-sized grandeur to, arguably, the most epic of all mythological tales, full of gods, monsters, adventures on the high seas, and fiery passions of the heart.
Matt Damon leads The Odyssey as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca who, after victory in the Trojan War, makes a treacherous, decade-long journey home to be reunited with his wife, Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway. Tom Holland also stars as Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, who seeks the truth about his father as Penelope’s many suitors attempt to steal the throne away.
Also in the cast are Robert Pattinson as the bold Antinous, Penelope’s most aggressive suitor; Zendaya plays the goddess Athena, with Charlize Theron as Circe the enchantress, Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king Menelaus, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Mia Goth as Melantho, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, and Bill Irwin as the cyclops Polyphemus. Lupita Nyong’o, Will Yun Lee, Corey Hawkins, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Jovan Adepo, Shiloh Fernandez, Logan Marshall-Green, and more have undisclosed roles.
The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17th 2026.
