Oscar-winning Hollywood visionary Christopher Nolan has kick-started the hype train for his upcoming movie, The Odyssey, and we can’t be more excited about the 2026 fantasy epic. Nolan, who has become known for celebrating the craft he’s shown in movies like Inception and Oppenheimer, says he’s taking an even more ambitious approach with The Odyssey as he tries to find “gaps in cinematic culture.” The director is looking to achieve “things that have never been done before” in Hollywood, and knowing his uncompromising method, we should believe him. It all points to The Odyssey being a unique cinema production that will be unlike anything ever attempted before.
The director recently spoke with Empire about his upcoming movie, which, so far, has been produced under a veil of secrecy. Though there have been leaks, they’re not enough to calculate the true scale of Nolan’s groundbreaking vision. The Odyssey is set to dazzle fans of the fantasy genre, and while there have been films made about Greek mythology before, The Odyssey promises to be one for the ages. Nolan revealed:
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.
We shot over two million feet of film. It’s pretty primal! I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places. And yeah, it’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift. We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”
The Odyssey is based on the 6th century BC poem by Homer. It follows Greek king Odysseus, as he survives the Trojan War and faces mythical creatures when trying to return home. The film continues Nolan’s solo screenwriting journey following several years of co-writing his scripts alongside his brother, Jonathan Nolan. The Odyssey is also produced by Nolan’s partner and longtime collaborator, Emma Thomas. Others returning to work with the director include cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, as well as film composer Ludwig Göransson. The A-list cast includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, and Jon Bernthal, among many others.
‘The Odyssey’: A “Mythic” Summer Movie for Modern Times
It’s no secret that films of the scale of The Odyssey don’t come around too often anymore. The studio system has been heavily affected by new technologies like streaming services, and making and releasing a film nowadays depends on many factors far beyond simply fulfilling an artistic vision. The Odyssey comes at a hefty budget of $250 million, and that’s without marketing and distribution costs. Although the return of Christopher Nolan and the stacked A-list cast should be more than enough to convince people to embark on a quest into theaters.
Nolan’s action fantasy epic is likely to be Universal’s most important project for summer of 2026, at least, in terms of the gamble that such an expensive movie represents. Spielberg’s untitled sci-fi project also arrives next summer, but Universal is keeping that one under wraps. If you thought The Odyssey seemed like such a secret project, Spielberg’s latest doesn’t even have a title, a poster, or a trailer.
Matt Damon says it better while also speaking with Empire, sharing that The Odyssey is “exactly what you want of a summer movie.” But a summer movie based on Greek mythology? Will modern audiences connect with this? Damon sounds confident, saying, “It should be the most massively entertaining film. It should feel mythic. I can say, without hyperbole, that it was the best experience of my career.” We’re quiet a way away from release (The Odyssey lands in theaters on July 17, 2026), but the fact tickets have sold out a whole year before the premiere is surely a sign that Nolan is on the right track to land one of his biggest movies ever.
- Release Date
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July 17, 2026
- Producers
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Emma Thomas