Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron. We saw these names drop one by one in the past few months in connection with a mysterious new Christopher Nolan project. Whenever a well-known actor’s name came up, it wasn’t a rumor but a confirmation that they were going to star in Nolan’s next film.
We even got a release date for the project as the cast grew larger: July 17th, 2026. That release date also impacted another big movie starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, Spider-Man 4, which was supposed to come out during the same month. Rumors say Sony and Marvel postponed the Spidey sequel to December 2026 to avoid production issues and competition with Nolan’s new movie.
Back to Nolan’s flick, neither the director nor Universal Pictures were willing to share its name or plot details. Some speculated it might be a sci-fi adventure, which is a familiar genre for Nolan. Others wondered whether the director would tackle a different historic event.
Thankfully, we’ve witnessed a Christmas miracle in the world of movies, as Universal Pictures has finally confirmed the name: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey premieres on July 17th, 2026.
“Christopher Nolan’s next film The Odyssey is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology. The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to IMAX film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17th, 2026,” Universal wrote on X.
All I have to say is that the cast makes sense. It’s a massive story that deserves an equally enormous cast. It’s not quite a sci-fi epic, and it’s not historic. However, The Odyssey will be based on Homer’s ancient Greek poem of the same name. The story follows Odysseus, a Greek hero returning home after the Trojan War.
It’s unclear at this point who will play Odysseus, but we have plenty of time to find out. Also, I’d expect other impressive additions to the cast now that we have a name for Christopher Nolan’s next big film. The Odyssey has war, Greek gods, sorcery, sea creatures, and political machinations. In other words, you’re going to have plenty of supporting roles to fill. Again, the cast revelations so far make plenty of sense, given the story’s scope.
Nolan’s version of The Odyssey will start shooting next year, so we’ll have to wait a while to see his vision of the epic poem. Until then, you can always enjoy different movies based on Homer’s work.
As Variety notes, we have alternatives going back to 1911, when Giuseppe de Liguoro made a silent film version of it. The 1954 Ulysses version, starring Kirk Douglas, might be better known.
More recently, we’ve had O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and The Return (2024). The former is loosely based on the poem, while the latter is adapted from its last sections.
I’d also single out the star-studded Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt as Achilles and Sean Bean as Odysseus. The movie tells the story of the battle of Troy rather than covering the entirety of the poem. With that in mind, I can’t help but wonder whether Nolan’s movie will turn out to be a trilogy or whether he’ll do it all in one single film.
