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Potentially one of next year’s biggest movies, outside of some set pics and a very brief teaser trailer, nobody has seen too much of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey yet. Well, that is about to change. Empire Magazine has done a special preview issue on the movie. The cast have spoken about their experiences, and new images have been revealed.
It starts with lead Matt Damon, who says:
“I can say, without hyperbole, that it was the best experience of my career.”
What can we expect? It’s a Greek mythology tale, based on one of the oldest surviving works of literature in all of human existence, but it is not a historical account. How will the director who made Batman seem almost plausible bring this to the screen? Damon, again, says Nolan does nothing to hide from the mythology:
“If you’re going to have an existential crisis as you pass the Sirens and you’re lashed to a mast, it’s there. If it says you’re running for your life from a Cyclops, you’re going to run for your life. Chris doesn’t hide the ball.”
Nolan himself says that his main goal is to do justice to some of the movies of his youth:
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”
Nolan also says he will show just how hard these journeys were back then, to ancient mariners who had limited knowledge of what was outside their sphere:
We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.
By embracing the physicality of the real world in the making of the film, you do inform the telling of the story in interesting ways. Because you’re confronted on a daily basis by the world pushing back at you.”
The film tells the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his journey home after the Trojan War. Along the way, he will face the Cyclops, the Sirens, and a witch-goddess as he is tested by divine power, a test he must pass before he can again be with his wife, Penelope.
Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, and Corey Hawkins round out the ensemble cast.
The preview edition of Empire is available from November 20th. The Odyssey will be released in theaters on July 17th, 2026.
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