Nolan began writingThe Odyssey in March 2024, secured the project withUniversal Pictures by October, and the film was announced in December. Casting occurred throughout late 2024, and Damon was confirmed for the lead role in February 2025.Principal photography took place from February to August 2025 across multiple international locations, including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, andWestern Sahara. With an estimated budget of $250 million, the film is the most expensive ofNolan's career and his first to be shot entirely onIMAX's70 mm film cameras.
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Universal Pictures on July 17, 2026.
Premise
The Odyssey followsOdysseus, the legendaryGreek king ofIthaca, on his long and perilous journey home following theTrojan War, chronicling his encounters with mythical beings such as theCyclopsPolyphemus,the Sirens, and the witch-goddessCirce, while attempting to reunite with his wife,Penelope.[3]
Cast
Matt Damon asOdysseus: The legendaryGreek king ofIthaca.[4] DirectorChristopher Nolan described Odysseus as complicated, "an amazing strategist, [and] a very wily person", and was interested in his cleverness and inventiveness.[5]
After directorChristopher Nolan won theAcademy Awards forBest Picture andBest Director for his filmOppenheimer (2023) in March 2024, he began writing the script for his next film.[23][24] Nolan was revealed in October to be developing his next film atUniversal Pictures, after working with that studio onOppenheimer. Nolan was confirmed to be writing the script and producing the film once again with his wife,Emma Thomas, through their production company,Syncopy.Matt Damon was in talks to star in the film, after collaborating with Nolan onOppenheimer andInterstellar (2014), and filming was slated to begin in early 2025. UnlikeOppenheimer, which Universal acquired at auction, this film was set up directly at the studio and given a July 17, 2026, release date.[25][26] The film'slogline and additional details of its premise were kept largely secretive compared to Nolan's previous films, which prompted much speculation about its subject matter.[27][28] This included rumors that it would either be a vampireperiod piece, areboot of the 1983 helicopter action-thriller filmBlue Thunder,[7]: 50 [27][28] or an adaptation of the British spy television seriesThe Prisoner (1967–68), which Nolan was previously attached to in 2009,[23][25] but all of these were debunked.[27][28][25] Damon was confirmed to star later that month whenTom Holland was cast.[29] Previous Nolan collaboratorsAnne Hathaway—who starred inThe Dark Knight Rises (2012) andInterstellar—andRobert Pattinson, who starred inTenet (2020), joined the cast in November,[30][27] alongsideZendaya,[30]Lupita Nyong'o,[8] andCharlize Theron.[28] Damon, Holland, Hathaway, and Pattinson were all set for lead roles in the film, with Nyong'o and Zendaya having supporting roles.[27]
In December 2024, Universal announced Nolan's new film asThe Odyssey, an adaptation ofHomer'sOdyssey, anAncient Greekepic poem. The studio described the film as a "mythic action epic" that would be filmed worldwide.[3][31] Nolan was previously attached to direct the filmTroy (2004)—based on Homer'sOdyssey predecessor theIliad—thatWolfgang Petersen had developed forWarner Bros., before Petersen chose to directTroy instead of a plannedBatman vs.Superman film, and Nolan subsequently madeBatman Begins (2005).[32][33][34]The Odyssey was expected to have a $250 million budget, which would make it the most expensive film ofNolan's career.[35][2] Nolan and Thomas describedThe Odyssey as "foundational" because it incorporates aspects of the horror,mystery, romance, and thriller genres of stories.[7]: 59 [36] Nolan sought to elevate his work and experience withThe Odyssey by variousGreek mythology–inspired works he watched growing up, particularly the films ofRay Harryhausen.[36] Production designerRuth De Jong and costume designerEllen Mirojnick returned to work with Nolan fromOppenheimer.[37][38]
"I remember seeing a school play of Ulysses [the Latin variant ofOdysseus] when I was five or six years old. The older kids were doing it. I rememberthe Sirens and him being strapped to the mast and things like that. I think it's in all of us, really. And when you start to break down the text and adapt it, you find that all of these other films – and all the films I've worked on – you know, they're all from TheOdyssey.Emma [Thomas] said it best when we first announced the project: it's foundational."
— Christopher Nolan on his early interest in theOdyssey and how it influenced his previous films[7]: 50
Principal photography lasted for 91 days from February 25 to August 8, 2025,[36][44][45] spanning various regions worldwide, including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland.[7]: 55 Hoyte van Hoytema reunited with Nolan as cinematographer.[4] After usingIMAX 70 mm film extensively sinceThe Dark Knight (2008),The Odyssey is Nolan's first film to be shot entirely withIMAX film cameras, using a newly developed lighter and quieter version along with existing technology.[31][46][47] Over 2 million feet (610 kilometres) of IMAX 70 mm film was used to shootThe Odyssey.[36] The production used theworking titleCharlie's Tale,[48] andwrapped nine days ahead of schedule.[7]: 56
By March 27, the production moved to theAegadian Islands in Sicily, Italy, for filming on the island ofFavignana, which is believed to be the location known as the "goat island" in the poem.[57][37] Water-borne filming subsequently took place from April 15 to May 15 throughout theAeolian Islands for scenes featuring the mythological island ofAeolia, occurring along the islands ofLipari,Basiluzzo, andVulcano. Filming in these regions was subject to certain safeguarding restrictions fromlocal ordinances.[58][57] For the maritime sequences, the production used the largest modernVikinglongship, theDraken Harald Hårfagre, which the actors portraying Odysseus's crew commanded.[7]: 55 Halfway through shooting by early May, filming occurred in Los Angeles on the film's only set constructed on a studiosound stage,[7]: 55 [59] before shooting atFindlater Castle inMoray,Scotland, in early June.[60] For ten days between the middle and end of June, the production partnered withTruenorth and relocated to remote regions ofIceland, including the harbourLandeyjahöfn, theHjörleifshöfði mountain, the riverMarkarfljót, and theSnæfellsnes peninsula,[20][48] primarily to shoot scenes in theGreek underworld of Hades,[7]: 55 before returning to Scotland for scenes at Buckie Harbour and the secluded Sunnyside Beach nearCullen, Moray. Filming had taken place in theCulbin Forest from July 3 to 16, before returning to Findlater Castle through July 25,[61] with Theron filming her scenes asCirce during the last two weeks in July.[9]
Filming took place for four days between July 17 and 22, with Damon and Zendaya, at the White Dune nearDakhla, Western Sahara,[62][49][63][64] a city underMoroccan occupation since 1975.[65][64][51] ThePolisario Front—the United Nations–recognized representative of theSahrawi people in Western Sahara—decried the decision to film in Western Sahara as "whitewashing [Morocco's] colonialism" and a "violation of international law and ethical standards governing cultural and artistic work".[50][51][66] Organizers of theSahara International Film Festival criticized the decision to film in Western Sahara, stating that the production would "perhaps unknowingly and unwittingly" help whitewash Morocco's occupation of the territory and repression of the Sahrawis.[64][63] The organizers called for the production to be halted, but filming in the territory had already concluded at that time.[64][63] Meanwhile, theMoroccan Cinematographic Center calledThe Odyssey an important production to Morocco's promotion of its film industry and said that it was the first major American film to be filmed in that territory.[50][51] The festival's organizers subsequently released a statement calling "on Nolan, Universal Pictures and others to publicly acknowledge it was wrong to film scenes in occupied Dakhla and to not edit them intoThe Odyssey, or else request consent from the legal representatives of the Sahrawi people, the rightful owners of the land where the film was shot." This statement was signed and supported by several prominent figures, including Spanish actorsCarlos andJavier Bardem,Luis Tosar,Carolina Yuste, andJuan Diego Botto, Spanish filmmakersRodrigo Sorogoyen andIcíar Bollaín, and Sahrawi human rights defenderElghalia Djimi.[67][68][69] Filming also took place inMalta before concluding back in Los Angeles.[45] Some filming was also expected to occur in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[57][19]
A promotional image of starMatt Damon in costume asOdysseus was noted for the historical inaccuracies in its design.[72]
Universal Pictures released a "surprise" first-look image of Damon in costume as Odysseus in the middle of February 2025.[4] Various commentators and historians described the costume Damon wore as historically inaccurate, both in terms of the armor Odysseus would have worn around the time theOdyssey takes place and of what is described in theIliad.[72] A 70-second-long teaser trailer forThe Odyssey featuring Holland's Telemachus and Bernthal's Menelaus debuted exclusively in movie theaters ahead of screenings for Universal'sJurassic World Rebirth upon its release in July 2025, one year before the film's release.[6][73] The teaser was expected to be released online later that year,[73] but was leaked online soon after.[2][73]
Vanity Fair's Eléa Guilleminault-Bauer described the short teaser as previewingThe Odyssey "through suggestion and cleverly elliptical editing",[74] while Hannah Hunt atCollider highlighted the final scene of the teaser featuring Damon's Odysseus, unconscious and drifting in the ocean, and its thematic implications.[75] Greg Evans atThe Independent wrote that the leaked trailer sent some fans "into a frenzy" due to its high anticipation,[76] which Ryan Britt ofMen's Journal felt was warranted and described the teaser's "haunting nature" as promising "a myth actually brought to life". He highlighted Bernthal's "ominous" narration with a "touch of naturalism and realism", noting that Odysseus is talked about more than he is depicted in the teaser.[77]/Film's Rick Stevenson wrote that the teaser continued Nolan's tradition of using an "often cryptic, vibes-first trailer, meant more to tease the mood of the film than to give away much in the way of plot or detail", but also found it to be "fairly substantive" compared to the similar teasers for some of Nolan's previous films.[78] Less enthused reactions came from Erik Kain ofForbes and Esther Zuckerman atThe New York Times, who both disliked the American accents used by British actors for Greek characters. Kain was concerned about the "muted" aesthetic and "drained" color grading, but compared it more favorably to directorRidley Scott's filmGladiator II (2024), while Zuckerman felt the teaser was "coy about revealing too much of Nolan's take on Homer's saga".[79][80]
Release
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released byUniversal Pictures in the United States on July 17, 2026, inIMAX,[31]IMAX 70 mm film formats,[81] andpremium large formats (PLFs).[82] Tickets for select IMAX 70 mm screenings were made available on July 17, 2025, one year before the film's release, which was considered an unprecedented move by a major film distributor.[81] Several of these showings sold out within the first 12 hours of their availability, including half of the 22 theaters available in the United States.[81][82]
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