Well, this should drive the MAGA douchebags into a frenzy.
Christopher Nolan has confirmed to Time Magazine what has been speculated for a year, that Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will play Helen of Troy in The Odyssey. Not only that, she’ll have a dual role, playing Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra.
Helen of Troy is an iconic figure in Greek mythology, known for her staggering beauty that led to war. She fled her husband, Menelaus, played by Benny Safdie in Nolan’s film, to be with Prince Paris of Troy, sparking the Trojan War at the heart of Homer’s epic poem. Clytemnestra is Helen’s half-sister and married to Menelaus’ brother, Agamemnon. She despises him and, in Homer’s epic, gets lethal revenge on her husband when he returns from war.
This gives the talented Nyong’o the chance to play two very different women trapped by the war-making ways of men. Nyong’o has done the dual-performance thing before, in Jordan Peele’s 2012 horror, Us. So we know she’s more than capable.
Not that certain people will care. They’re much more upset that a Black woman is playing Helen, the “most beautiful woman in the world”, a character traditionally depicted as blonde-haired and white. Well, those folks can stay mad. They’ll still show up to see the movie, anyway. Helen was portrayed by Diane Kruger in Wolfgang Petersen’s epic Troy in 2004.
The controversy, if you can even call it that, was refueled by Elon Musk’s recent comments. But he was probably on ketamine at the time, so who gives a shit.
The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17th.
