Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie Set at Universal With Matt Damon as Potential Lead

Christopher Nolan and Universal had quite the collaboration with Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the critical and commercial smash hit that was nominated for 13 Oscars and won 7, including Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. Now, Deadline scoops that Nolan and Universal are reteaming for the director’s next feature, with plans for an Imax release on July 17, 2026.

Deadline‘s scoop includes the nugget that Nolan is eyeing one of his Oppenheimer stars, Matt Damon, as his lead. Damon and Nolan have collaborated twice now; in Oppenheimer, Damon played Leslie Groves, the military man who helped arrange the Manhattan Project that Robert J. Oppenheimer led to build the atomic bomb. Previously, Damon had a brief but explosive role in Nolan’s emotional 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar, where Damon played Dr. Mann, an astronaut marooned on a brutally cold planet orbiting a black hole called Gargantua. When Matthew McConaughey and his team arrive, Dr. Mann’s true intentions for his distress signal are revealed.

L to R: Matt Damon is Leslie Groves and Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Nolan’s new project is a state secret, of course. Neither Nolan nor Universal has any comment, but the mid-July release date is similar to the sweet spot when Oppenheimer was released, as well as his 2010 mind-tripper Inception and his most beloved contribution to the superhero world, his 2008 film The Dark Knight.

We’ll share more details about Nolan’s upcoming project when we hear them.

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Featured: Writer, director, and producer Christopher Nolan on the set of OPPENHEIMER. Courtesy Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures.

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The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.