Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Oppenheimer (2023) was announced by Universal Pictures in December 2024 as an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Nolan began writing the screenplay in March 2024 and secured the project at Universal by October. Casting commenced shortly thereafter, with Matt Damon 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, and Western Sahara. With an estimated budget of $250million, the film is the most expensive of Nolan's career and marks his first film to be shot entirely on IMAX's 70 mm film cameras.
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on July 17, 2026.
Premise
The Odyssey follows Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca, on his long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War, chronicling his encounters with mythical beings such as the CyclopsPolyphemus, the Sirens, and the witch-goddess Circe, while attempting to reunite with his wife, Penelope.[3]
After director Christopher Nolan won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for his film Oppenheimer (2023) in March 2024, he began writing the script for his next film.[7][8] Nolan was revealed in October to be developing his next film at Universal Pictures, after working with that studio on Oppenheimer. Nolan was confirmed to once again be writing the script and producing the film with his wife Emma Thomas through their production company Syncopy. Matt Damon was in talks to star in the film, after collaborating with Nolan on Oppenheimer and Interstellar (2014), and filming was slated to begin in early 2025. Unlike Oppenheimer, which Universal acquired in an auction, this film was directly set up at the studio, which gave it a release date of July 17, 2026.[9][10] The film's logline and additional details of its premise were kept largely secretive compared to Nolan's previous films, which prompted much speculation about its subject matter. This included rumors that it would either be a vampire period piece, a helicopter action-thriller,[11][12] or an adaptation of the British spy television series The Prisoner (1967–68), which Nolan was previously attached to in 2009,[7][9] but all of these were debunked.[11][12][9] Damon was confirmed to star later that month when Tom Holland was cast.[13] Previous Nolan collaborators Anne Hathaway—who starred in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Interstellar—and Robert Pattinson, who starred in Tenet (2020), joined the cast in November,[14][11] alongside Zendaya,[14]Lupita Nyong'o,[15] and Charlize Theron.[12] Damon, Holland, Hathaway, and Pattinson were all set for lead roles in the film, with Nyong'o and Zendaya having supporting roles.[11]
A promotional image of star Matt Damon in costume as Odysseus was noted for the historical inaccuracies in its design.
Damon was confirmed to be portraying Odysseus when a "surprise" first-look image of him in costume was released in mid-February, ahead of the start of filming later that month. This came after some rumors had circulated that Holland could be playing the role;[4] Holland was later confirmed to be portraying Odysseus's son, Telemachus.[5] Various commentators and historians described the costume Damon wore as being historically inaccurate in terms of what armor Odysseus would have worn around the time that the Odyssey takes place and what is described in the Iliad.[36] Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and composer Ludwig Göransson both signed on after working with Nolan on Oppenheimer.[37][38]
By March 27, the production moved to the Aegadian Islands in Sicily, Italy, for filming on the island of Favignana, which is believed to be the location known as the "goat island" in the poem.[50][37] Water-borne filming subsequently took place from April 15 to May 15 throughout the Aeolian Islands for scenes featuring the mythological island of Aeolia, occurring along the islands of Lipari, Basiluzzo, and Vulcano. Filming in these regions was subject to certain safeguarding restrictions from local ordinances.[51][52][50] Filming occurred at a studio sound stage in Los Angeles by early May,[53] before shooting at Findlater Castle in Moray, Scotland, in early June.[54] The production relocated to remote regions of Iceland, including Landeyjahöfn, by the middle of the month until late June,[55] before returning to Scotland for scenes at Buckie Harbour and the secluded Sunnyside Beach near Cullen, Moray. Filming had taken place in the Culbin Forest from July 3 to 16, before returning to Findlater Castle through July 25,[56] with Theron filming her scenes as Circe during the last two weeks in July.[6]
Filming took place for four days between July 17 and 22, with Damon and Zendaya, at the White Dune near Dakhla, Western Sahara,[57][40][58][59] a city under Moroccan occupation since 1975.[60][59][42] The Polisario Front—the United Nations–recognized representative of the Sahrawi 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".[41][42][61] Organizers of the Sahara 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.[59][58] The organizers called for the production to be halted, but filming in the territory had already concluded at that time.[59][58] Meanwhile, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center called The 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 the occupied territory.[41][42] 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 into The 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 actors and brothers Javier Bardem and Carlos Bardem, Spanish actor Luis Tosar, Spanish actress Carolina Yuste, Argentine-Spanish actor Juan Diego Botto, Spanish filmmakers Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Icíar Bollaín, and Sahrawi human rights defender Elghalia Djimi.[62][63][64]
Filming also took place in Malta,[65] and was also expected to occur in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[50][23] The production subsequently returned to Los Angeles, where filming wrapped on August 8, 2025, after a six-month shoot.[65]
A 70-second-long teaser trailer for The Odyssey featuring Holland's Telemachus and Bernthal debuted exclusively in movie theaters ahead of screenings for Universal's Jurassic World Rebirth upon its release in July 2025, one year before the film's release.[5][66] The teaser was expected to be released online later that year,[66] but was leaked online soon after.[2][66]
Release
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released by Universal Pictures in the United States on July 17, 2026, in IMAX,[16]IMAX 70 mm film formats,[67] and premium large formats (PLFs).[68] 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.[67] 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.[67][68]
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