Academy Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan has never treated scale as a simple decoration. “Oppenheimer” turned theory, guilt, ambition, and fallout into a three-hour blockbuster; now, “The Odyssey” sends him even further back, into myth, gods, monsters, war, and the long, punishing road home.
Universal has released the trailer for “The Odyssey,” Nolan’s first film since “Oppenheimer” and his first full plunge into ancient Homeric legend. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, trying to return home after the Trojan War, with Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as Telemachus. The cast also includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron.
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Nolan wrote and directed the film, with Emma Thomas producing alongside him through his Syncopy production company. The filmmaker has reunited with several key collaborators, including cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, editor Jennifer Lame, and composer Ludwig Göransson, while DNEG and Wētā Workshop are handling visual effects.
“The Odyssey” is Nolan’s first film shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film. Production took place across several countries, including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, and Iceland, as Nolan has described wanting to lean into the physical difficulty and uncertainty of Odysseus’ journey rather than flattening the story into pure fantasy spectacle.
For anyone bracing for another maximalist runtime, Nolan has also clarified that “The Odyssey” will come in under three hours, shorter than “Oppenheimer,” while still calling the movie an epic suited to its source material.
“The Odyssey” is a homecoming story, but it is also a survival story, a war story, a marriage story, and a test of how much one man can endure before the idea of home starts to feel like a distant memory.
“The Odyssey” opens in theaters and IMAX on July 17, 2026. Watch the trailer below.
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
