Only a director like Christopher Nolan could bring Homer’s Odyssey to the screen with a budget of $250 million—and an ambition worthy of the Olympian gods. A year before its scheduled release on July 17, 2026, the filmmaker’s titanic next project is already making the industry tremble. And with good reason: The teaser for the film, initially released exclusively in cinemas before Jurassic World Rebirth, leaked on X and TikTok July 1. Though the images were ripped from their original IMAX format, they were enough to send the internet into a frenzy.
For 70 seconds, the director of Oppenheimer gives a preview of his Odyssey through suggestion and cleverly elliptical editing. The teaser opens with a voiceover—it sounds like it’s being spoken by Robert Pattinson—whispering, “Darkness. Zeus’s law smashed to pieces. I’m without a king since my master died. He knew it was an unwinnable war. And then, somehow, he won it.”
In just a few shots, the stage is set: a raging sea; a windswept shoreline; the Trojan horse; a monumental, ominous, half-sunken silhouette; and the Greek hero Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, drifting on pieces of wood. We also catch a glimpse of his son Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, interrogating a mysterious figure played by Jon Bernthal. “I have to find out what happened to my father,” Telemachus says. Bernthal’s character answers, “Who has a story about Odysseus? You? You have a story? Some say he’s rich. Some say he’s poor. Some said he perished. Some said he’s imprisoned.”
And that’s all. The words “A Journey Begins” and the date “07.17.26” appear onscreen, sealing the film’s promise. But if the trailer is stingy on revelations, the cast is staggering. In addition to Damon, Holland, Bernthal, and Pattinson, The Odyssey features a constellation of stars: Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Mia Goth, Benny Safdie, Himesh Patel, Cosmo Jarvis, Corey Hawkins, and John Leguizamo. A pantheon of performers for a film that may be the largest and most visual in Christopher Nolan’s filmography. With a budget of some $250 million, The Odyssey is also the most expensive project of Nolan’s career.
The Oscar-winning director shoots for the first time entirely in IMAX, continuing his obsession with the immersive format begun with Dunkirk, amplified with Tenet, and sealed with Oppenheimer. Shooting, still in progress, is taking place in Greece, Morocco, and Italy. The images in the trailer hint at a sober, almost brutal artistic direction—far removed from the gilding of a classical swords-and-sandals adventure. The challenge is considerable, as Nolan’s subject has already been transposed to the screen on numerous occasions, most recently in Uberto Pasolini’s The Return, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Since leaving Warner Bros. for Universal in 2021—following the studio’s decision to release its films simultaneously on streaming during the pandemic—Nolan has become one of the last great defenders of theatrical cinema. Now, with The Odyssey, he’s going whole hog. The teaser won’t be available online in its official form until autumn. And that teaser doesn’t even show some of The Odyssey’s most memorable and fantastical creations, including the Cyclops, the island of Circe, and the underworld. But initial reactions are unanimously positive in any case. Some X users claim to have bought a ticket for the latest opus in the Jurassic Park saga just to see this trailer. Others are predicting a flurry of awards. Paradoxically, the leaks have boosted the film—as if Nolan’s odyssey also began with an unexpected detour.
Original story in VF France.
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