After conquering the Oscars with “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan is going back thousands of years for his next large-format event film. Universal Pictures has released the newest trailer for “The Odyssey,” Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s foundational Greek epic, which opens in theaters and IMAX on July 17, 2026.
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The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, whose long journey home after the Trojan War becomes one of the most enduring survival stories in Western literature. The official synopsis is being kept relatively spare, but the basic myth is familiar: after helping to win the war at Troy, Odysseus spends years trying to return to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, only to face monsters, divine punishment, shipwrecks, temptation, and the impossible pull of home.
Nolan has been circling this kind of scale for much of his career, but “The Odyssey” marks a new technical milestone even for him. Universal has described the film as a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand-new IMAX film technology, and the studio says it is the first film shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Nolan has called that achievement a “longest-held ambition,” adding of Homer’s saga, “It’s not a story—it’s the story.”
The newest trailer offers a larger look at the film’s world, including Damon’s Odysseus and Charlize Theron’s Calypso, as well as the Trojan Horse sequence, which Universal has touted as a large-scale practical set piece involving thousands of soldiers. The project was shot in multiple international locations, including Greece, Morocco, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland, with Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema using new, lighter-weight IMAX cameras after years of working around the format’s size, noise, and logistical demands.
The ensemble is enormous. “The Odyssey” also stars Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Zendaya as Athena, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Mia Goth as Melantho, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, and Benny Safdie as Agamemnon.
The cast also includes Elliot Page, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Corey Hawkins, Nick E. Tarabay, Jimmy Gonzales, Maurice Compte, Michael Vlamis, Iddo Goldberg, Josh Stewart, Ryan Hurst, Anthony Molinari, Jovan Adepo, Logan Marshall-Green, James Remar, Travis Scott, Sean Avery, and Ian Casselberry.
The film also continues Nolan’s Universal era after “Oppenheimer,” which won Best Picture and Best Director, and grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. While most filmmakers would use that victory to take a victory lap or make something smaller, Nolan appears to have gone in the opposite direction: a nearly three-hour, R-rated Homeric action epic, shot on film, built for IMAX, and positioned as one of the defining theatrical releases of summer 2026.
Written and directed by Nolan, “The Odyssey” is produced by Emma Thomas and Nolan for Syncopy. Thomas Hayslip serves as executive producer. The film opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026. Watch the newest trailer below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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