Christopher Nolan’s Epic Adaptation of “The Odyssey” Still Feels Like an Indie Film to This Cast Member
Universal revealed the first look at Matt Damon playing the long-suffering hero Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic back in mid-February. The Twitter post showed Damon in a side-angle shot as the Ithacan hero wearing the helmet and military armor of the warrior he was when he plotted and fought victoriously in the Trojan War, before his decade-long, much waylaid journey back home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus on the Greek island of Ithaca.
Matt Damon is Odysseus. A film by Christopher Nolan, #TheOdysseyMovie is in theaters July 17, 2026. pic.twitter.com/7a5YbfqVfG
— odysseymovie (@odysseymovie) February 17, 2025
Damon is no stranger to Nolan films, having had a meaty role in Nolan‘s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, playing Leslie Groves, the United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who directed the Manhattan Project, which included cherry-picking Robert J. Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), despite the government’s concerns about his loyalties, to run the program.
Damon is joined by Tom Holland, Mia Goth, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, and John Leguizamo, all in undisclosed roles. Now that we know Damon’s Odysseus, we can still speculate on who the rest of the cast is playing—Charlize Theron as Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, who ingeniously keeps her suitors at bay for ten years while she waits for her husband’s return? Robert Pattinson as Eurymachus, one of the vile suitors? Benny Safdie as Polyphemus, the one-eyed cannibal giant who traps Odysseus and his scouting party in his cave? Zendaya as Circe, the beautiful goddess who holds him captive for seven years? Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus’s son?
And who might John Leguizamo be playing? One thing we can tell you about Johnny Legs is that he’s given us our first taste of what the production has been like for those on set. In a recent interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Leguizamo said that despite Nolan’s prestige in the industry and the healthy budget he’s working with, filming The Odyssey still feels like being on the set of a totally different kind of film.
“It’s not small, but he runs [it] like an indie film because he’s not doing it by committee, he’s not doing it by what the studio [says]. He’s like an indie filmmaker but with crazy money.”
While Nolan certainly has earned the clout to direct his adaptation of one of the most deathless tales ever told in any way he chooses, he’s still making the most of the budget he has by deploying new IMAX film technology to unleash an adaptation of Homer’s classic unlike any we’ve seen before.
Nolan and his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, are using new IMAX film cameras for the shoot that are 30% quieter and lighter due to their carbon fiber construction. These lighter cameras mean that Hoytema and Nolan can capture more shots than the heavier, older models would have allowed. They’re also taking advantage of how much quieter the new cameras are. The older models made much more of a racket, which in turn made certain scenes more difficult to hear, an issue for Nolan as he’s a director who really doesn’t like using automatic dialogue replacement (ADR), a traditional technique for filling in dialogue later for a scene that’s a little too loud or sonically chaotic on set.
Nolan’s also filming on location in several stunning spots. The film is partly being shot on the Sicilian island of Favignana. Also known as “goat island,” Favignana is where scholars believe that Homer’s hero Odysseus came ashore with his doomed crew to feast on barbecued goats and sure up their provisions for the voyage home. Favignana is part of the Aegadian Islands, situated roughly 11 miles west of the Sicilian coast.
For those of you not yet versed in Homer’s “The Odyssey,” the story tracks Odysseus’s torturous journey home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus after the Trojan War. Despite his valor and his cunning, he’s made a few enemies along the way—including some very vengeful Gods—who throw all manner of horrors at him and his men. Eventually, he’s the lone survivor out of every member of his crew, after he must face down formidable adversaries, including the aforementioned Circe and the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus. The best modern translation of the book we know is Emily Wilson’s “The Odyssey,” a crystalline and vibrant version written in iambic pentameter verse that retains the subtle weirdness of Homer’s tale.
Nolan’s The Odyssey arrives on these shores on July 17, 2026.
For more on Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, check out these stories:
First Image From Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” Reveals Matt Damon as Odysseus
Christopher Nolan’s Next Film Revealed as Adaptation of “The Odyssey”
Featured image: Matt Damon is Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. Courtesy Universal Pictures.
