Following several Oscar wins for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is heading into Greek mythology with an adaptation of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. The story follows Odysseus, a heroic king, on his perilous voyage home after the ten-year Trojan War. The film arrives in North America in IMAX on July 17, 2026.
Matt Damon plays the title character Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Credit: Universal Pictures
A First in Cinema History
The production is the first feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film cameras, and with a $250 million budget it is the most expensive of Nolan's career. To pull it off, his team burned through more than two million feet of film during a grueling 91-day shoot that circled the globe, with locations in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and the United Kingdom.
Because every frame was captured with IMAX cameras, no other film has been made this way. IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond confirmed the production uses technology never seen before, and Hoyte van Hoytema, Nolan's cinematographer since Interstellar, is confirmed to be back.
Watch the official trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey
A Godlike Cast
The film features one of the most stacked ensembles in modern cinema. Matt Damon leads as the cunning King of Ithaca, Odysseus, in his third collaboration with Nolan. Tom Holland plays his son Telemachus, and Anne Hathaway is Odysseus' wife Penelope.
Matt Damon
Odysseus
Anne Hathaway
Penelope
Tom Holland
Telemachus
Zendaya
Athena
The ensemble also includes Robert Pattinson as Antinous, the arrogant and aggressive suitor; Charlize Theron as Circe, the powerful enchantress who turns men into pigs; and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, Mia Goth, and Elliot Page complete the cast.
The Odyssey: By The Numbers
- Budget:$250+ million
- Shoot duration:6 months
- Film used:2 million+ feet of IMAX 70mm
- Filming locations:8+ countries
- Confirmed cast members:15+
What the Trailer Reveals
The trailer, which debuted on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, gives a stunning look at the epic's most iconic moments. We finally see Odysseus's harrowing clash with the monstrous Polyphemus as the hero and his men fight to survive in the giant's cave. Charlize Theron's Circe wields mystical powers, and Zendaya's Athena appears as a shimmering, commanding presence on the battlefield. The trailer closes on Matt Damon's Odysseus drifting on a piece of rubble in the middle of the ocean.
Robert Pattinson's Antinous is on display as he schemes to seize the throne of Ithaca, promising a violent, bloody conclusion. The trailer also does not ignore the story's emotional core, showing a ragged, aged Damon desperately trying to get home and building toward a powerful reunion with his son, Telemachus. The teaser's highlight is a conversation between Tom Holland's Telemachus and Jon Bernthal's mystery character, as Telemachus tries to learn what happened to his father.
Odysseus meets the monstrous Polyphemus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.
Nolan on Greek Mythology
In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Nolan described his long-held wish to make this film. "Greek mythology… hadn't really been done on a kind of A-budget, big studio, throw everything at the screen and see what sticks kind of way. It's just one of the great adventure stories and I really wanted to see it done justice."
The director called Homer's foundational epic essentially the "Marvel of its day," noting that the ancient poem has the same basic appeal as modern comic series. He pointed to audiences' appetite, clear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Universe, to see "gods walking the earth." Nolan went on to say that "modern comics are, in a way, an expression of our fundamental desire to see gods interacting with mortals." In his view, superhero films are not separate from the classical epic tradition but are its "direct spiritual heirs."
"The big breakthrough creatively in thinking about the gods was that everything that is now explained by science was once supernatural."
Nolan also confirmed that the film runs shorter than Oppenheimer's three hours, coming in just under 180 minutes. "One of the things that's really important to me is to be showing the film wherever possible on IMAX film, projecting the format, because we shot the entire movie on IMAX film, and the longest we've ever been able to get onto the IMAX projector is three hours," he said.
The film adapts Homer's epic of the same name, the tale of the Greek hero Odysseus's ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. After the decade of fighting at Troy, Odysseus wandered another ten years before finally reaching his homeland, Ithaca, where everyone assumed he was dead. In the meantime, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus were dealing with a pack of insolent suitors competing to marry Penelope.
Filming Across the Globe
The film was shot in Sicily's Cave of Polyphemus, the Scottish Highlands, Iceland's volcanic landscapes, and the ancient city of Troy in Turkey. Around 70% of it was filmed on the open sea, with actors enduring real storms to convey the desperation of Odysseus's voyage.
Nolan explained the choice: "The sea is vast, terrifying, wonderful and merciful all at once because conditions change in an instant. What we really wanted to show was how difficult these journeys were for people back then."
The Odyssey.
Release Information
The Odyssey opens exclusively in theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026, through Universal Pictures, and it is tracking as one of the year's biggest box office events. IMAX began pre-sales for the first wave of IMAX 70mm film screenings on July 17, 2025. The film is not available for streaming or early access.
Written by Marcus Reynolds
Senior Film Industry Analyst
Sources: Universal Pictures, Empire Magazine, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, IMAX, NBC
Release date: July 17, 2026
Distributed by Universal Pictures
