Stefano Chiacchiarini '74 / Shutterstock.com
Christopher Nolan has heard the backlash. He knows about the race and gender-driven arguments swirling around his casting choices for The Odyssey. And right now, he’s not interested in engaging with any of it — at least not until people actually see the movie.
The film hits theaters on July 17, and Nolan’s been making his media rounds ahead of release. Naturally, someone asked him about the criticism. That criticism has been loud enough that the final trailer racked up over 600,000 dislikes on YouTube.
Elon Musk and several other prominent conservative voices online have zeroed in on two casting decisions in particular: Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy — often described in the text as “the most beautiful woman in the world” — and Elliot Page portraying Sinon, the Greek soldier and cousin of Odysseus who fought beside him at Troy.
There’s also been a separate, less heated conversation about Nolan’s choice to have his cast speak in modern American English rather than anything more stylized or period-appropriate.
Nolan’s response: wait and see
Speaking with The Telegraph — tea in hand, and not in an ironic way — Nolan dismissed the backlash as beside the point until audiences actually watch the film.
“Comes with the territory,” he says, grinning serenely, before lifting his cup and saucer and taking a theatrical sip. “But look,” he adds, “these conversations that happen before people see the film – they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”
He added that he knew from the very start this project would generate strong reactions — some fair, some not.
“Besides, he says, he was aware from day one that The Odyssey was exactly the sort of project liable to stir up strong commentary – in good faith and bad – about how it should properly be handled.”
There’s literally 3am screenings that are sold out but sure the dislikes ratio is crazy https://t.co/CKCieadaRz
— thomas 🎥🍿 (@tommylovesfilm) July 2, 2026
He’s done this before — with Batman
This isn’t new territory for Nolan. He pointed back to his Batman trilogy, a run of films that took on a character audiences had known for decades — and one entry, The Dark Knight, that’s since been called one of the best movies of the century.
“But remember. I spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman. When I came on to Batman Begins, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents,” Nolan explained.
His takeaway from that experience? Don’t try to please everyone.
“And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honor the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.”
Who’s actually in this thing
The Odyssey opens Friday, July 17. Matt Damon leads as Odysseus. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, his wife waiting back home; Tom Holland plays their son, Telemachus.
The supporting cast reads like an ensemble stacked for awards season. Robert Pattinson takes on Antinous. Zendaya plays Athena. Charlize Theron and Samantha Morton play Calypso and Circe, respectively — two of the mythological figures Odysseus encounters on his journey home.
Nyong’o, meanwhile, pulls double duty — she’s playing both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Jon Bernthal rounds things out as Menelaus, and Benny Safdie plays Agamemnon.
Despite all the noise online, early reactions to the film have been overwhelmingly positive; several critics who’ve seen early screenings are already calling it one of the great cinematic achievements of Nolan’s career.
