"The Odyssey" Official Trailer: Matt Damon Embarks on a Mythic Journey Home in Christopher Nolan’s Epic Greek Fantasy — In Theaters July 17th
Nolan reimagines Homer’s legendary tale as a massive, star-studded IMAX spectacle, with Matt Damon leading a war-scarred odyssey shaped by myth, memory, and the pull of home.
After winning over both the box office and the Oscars with his 2023 WWII atomic bomb biopic Oppenheimer, filmmaker Christopher Nolan has pretty much reached the apex of his career. After all, he may be among only a handful of directors working today who can open a movie based on his name alone. No IP required, no superheroes, no franchise tie-ins. Just “a Christopher Nolan film,” and audiences, for the most part, will show up on opening night at the movie theaters.
It’s a rare position in Hollywood these days, where even the biggest stars can struggle to fill seats without a recognizable brand behind them. But Nolan has earned a reputation as a filmmaker with a fanbase that can rival any major franchise. And with a Best Director win finally under his belt, and his new partnership with Universal now firmly established, Nolan suddenly finds himself with more power than ever. So the big question lingering in everyone’s mind is: what will he do next?
Well, there were plenty of rumors floating around the corners of the internet last year. Some were as silly as reports claiming Nolan was planning to shoot a movie about futuristic aerial helicopter cops, supposedly inspired by the ‘80s action flick Blue Thunder. Another rumor suggested Nolan was finally dipping his toes into horror, developing a vampire movie of all things. And then there was the more grounded bit of gossip: that he was considering remaking the 1960s British mystery series The Prisoner, about an ex–secret agent abducted and held captive in a surreal village where his captors try to break his will and extract classified information. And honestly, if you asked us, that wouldn’t have been a bad idea at all.
Then it was reported what Nolan was really up to: The Odyssey. Yep, that Odyssey.
Homer’s epic tale of gods, monsters, and one man’s perilous journey home. Since its announcement, it felt like a whole generation of moviegoers suddenly started brushing up on their Greek mythology again—digging out old high school paperbacks or Googling “Who is Odysseus?” like it was an exam at the end of the week. Who knew ancient Greek mythology could become such a hot commodity? One minute it’s gathering dust, the next it’s the buzziest thing in Hollywood, as if Homer had just written the next big bestseller begging to be adapted.
Initial reports suggested Nolan was setting his sights on a sprawling cinematic experience unlike anything he’s done before—a mythological odyssey filtered through his cerebral lens and shot entirely on IMAX. So yes, you can count us among those already excited. And now, today, we’re finally getting a first look at Nolan’s next epic.
“After years of war…
no one could stand between my men and home…
Not even me.”
A shaggy, bearded Matt Damon narrates these words in the first online-released footage from The Odyssey, evoking a solemn, world-weary gravity that only a man who has fought a war, likely done some horrible things, and seen far too much death could deliver with such quiet conviction. Damon leads this ambitious big-budget feature as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca whose journey home is met with endless trials, divine interference, and the slow psychological toll of a war that came at an immeasurable cost—most painfully, the separation from his wife and child.
Nolan, who has long worked alongside his producing partner and wife Emma Thomas, is known for centering the emotional weight of his stories on the bond between a husband and his family. Both Interstellar and Inception, arguably two of his most celebrated works, feature protagonists grappling with profound separation and loss.
Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper in Interstellar isn’t unlike Odysseus—a man driven forward by duty and survival, yet emotionally tethered to the family he’s desperate to return to, no matter how impossible the journey becomes. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio’s dream-crashing master thief Dom Cobb in Inception is propelled by the devastating loss of his wife and an obsessive desire to reconnect with her memory. Even if the film’s ending is left open to interpretation—did that spinning top stop or not?—Inception is ultimately about a man’s overwhelming yearning to return home to his family.
So adapting Homer’s epic poem feels far more like a natural extension of Nolan’s longtime thematic obsessions than initially perceived, especially given how often his films circle the same emotional core of separation and the desperate pull of home.
Dunkirk is a ticking-clock WWII thriller about sheer survival and the will to make it home against impossible odds. Memento, meanwhile, follows a man metaphorically lost within his own memories, desperately clinging to fragments of truth as he spirals deeper into destructive vengeance tied to his wife’s mysterious death. His “homecoming” is not a physical place, but a fragile notion of peace that ultimately reveals itself to be a hollow illusion of closure.
And so, from the looks of things, Nolan’s The Odyssey appears to be a straightforward fantasy period saga, harkening back to the classic sword-and-sandal adventures of legendary stop-motion effects maestro Ray Harryhausen. Perhaps a little Jason and the Argonauts, a touch of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and maybe even a sprinkle of Clash of the Titans—all films that were likely Nolan’s bedtime viewings. But if we know Nolan, you can bet Damon’s journey will be far more cerebral than those Harryhausen classics, with myth and legend transformed into an inward reckoning shaped by time, memory, and the enduring pull of family.
Joining Damon is a true who’s who of A-list talent.
Tom Holland plays Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, who has grown into adulthood during his father’s long absence and is now thrust into the uneasy role of protecting his family’s legacy.
Anne Hathaway stars as Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, who—believing her husband to be dead—must fend off an onslaught of suitors while holding onto faith that he will one day return.
The supporting cast includes:
Robert Pattinson as Antinous, the most aggressive and arrogant of Penelope’s suitors;
Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war who serves as Odysseus’s divine protector;
Charlize Theron as Circe, the enigmatic goddess and witch;
Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, the hardened king of Sparta;
Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, commander of the Achaeans and brother to Menelaus;
John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s loyal servant;
Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, his second-in-command;
Will Yun Lee as one of Odysseus’s shipmates;
Mia Goth as Melantho, a maid in the royal household;
and Jimmy Gonzales as Cepheus, one of Odysseus’s crew.
Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Corey Hawkins, Ryan Hurst, Jovan Adepo, Logan Marshall-Green, and James Remar round out the ensemble in as-yet-undisclosed roles, with more names still waiting in the wings.
The Odyssey is scheduled to open nationwide on July 17th via Universal Pictures.
And while it’s clearly being positioned as a massive, star-studded summer blockbuster, given Nolan’s Oscar-winning pedigree, don’t be surprised if this one sticks around in the conversation when awards season rolls around and critics start locking in their best-of-the-year lists.
Official Synopsis:
Christopher Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey, is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX® film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX® film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.
The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron.
The Odyssey is produced by Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan for their company, Syncopy. The executive producer is Thomas Hayslip.
