Nolan began writing The Odyssey in March 2024, secured the project at Universal Pictures by October, and it was announced in December. Casting occurred throughout late 2024, and Damon was 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 his first to be shot entirely on IMAX's 70 mm film cameras.
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Universal Pictures 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]
Cast
Matt Damon as Odysseus, the legendary Greek king of Ithaca.[4] Director Christopher Nolan described Odysseus as complicated, "an amazing strategist, [and] a very wily person", and was interested in his cleverness and inventiveness.[5]
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.[8][9] 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 be writing the script and producing the film once again 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 at auction, this film was set up directly at the studio and given a July 17, 2026, release date.[10][11] 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,[12][13] or an adaptation of the British spy television series The Prisoner (1967–68), which Nolan was previously attached to in 2009,[8][10] but all of these were debunked.[12][13][10] Damon was confirmed to star later that month when Tom Holland was cast.[14] 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,[15][12] alongside Zendaya,[15]Lupita Nyong'o,[16] and Charlize Theron.[13] Damon, Holland, Hathaway, and Pattinson were all set for lead roles in the film, with Nyong'o and Zendaya having supporting roles.[12]
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.[6] 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.[40] Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick returned to work with Nolan from Oppenheimer.[41]
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.[54][41] 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.[55][56][54] Filming occurred at a studio sound stage in Los Angeles by early May,[57] before shooting at Findlater Castle in Moray, Scotland, in early June.[58] For ten days between the middle and end of June, the production partnered with Truenorth and relocated to remote regions of Iceland, including the harbour Landeyjahöfn, the Hjörleifshöfði mountain, the river Markarfljót, and the Snæfellsnes peninsula,[36][52] 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,[59] with Theron filming her scenes as Circe during the last two weeks in July.[7]
Filming took place for four days between July 17 and 22, with Damon and Zendaya, at the White Dune near Dakhla, Western Sahara,[60][43][61][62] a city under Moroccan occupation since 1975.[63][62][45] 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".[44][45][64] 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.[62][61] The organizers called for the production to be halted, but filming in the territory had already concluded at that time.[62][61] 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 that territory.[44][45] 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 Carlos and Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar, Carolina Yuste, and Juan Diego Botto, Spanish filmmakers Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Icíar Bollaín, and Sahrawi human rights defender Elghalia Djimi.[65][66][67]
Filming also took place in Malta,[68] and was also expected to occur in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[54][25] The production subsequently returned to Los Angeles, where filming wrapped on August 8, 2025,[68] after a 91-day shoot.[20]
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.[6][71] The teaser was expected to be released online later that year,[71] but was leaked online soon after.[2][71]Vanity Fair's Eléa Guilleminault-Bauer described the short teaser as previewing The Odyssey "through suggestion and cleverly elliptical editing",[72] while Hannah Hunt at Collider highlighted the final scene of the teaser featuring Damon's Odysseus, unconscious and drifting in the ocean, and its thematic implications.[73] Greg Evans at The Independent wrote that the leaked trailer sent some fans "into a frenzy" due to its high anticipation,[74] which Ryan Britt of Men's Journal felt was warranted and described the teaser's "haunting nature" as promising "a myth actually brought to life". He highlighted Bernthal's "ominous" narration with a "touch of naturalism and realism", noting that Odysseus is talked about more than he is depicted in the teaser.[75]/Film's Rick Stevenson wrote that the teaser continued Nolan's tradition of using an "often cryptic, vibes-first trailer, meant more to tease the mood of the film than to give away much in the way of plot or detail", but also found it to be "fairly substantive" compared to the similar teasers for some of Nolan's previous films.[76] Less enthused reactions came from Erik Kain of Forbes and Esther Zuckerman at The New York Times, who both disliked the American accents used by British actors for Greek characters. Kain was concerned about the "muted" aesthetic and "drained" color grading, but compared it more favorably to director Ridley Scott's film Gladiator II (2024), while Zuckerman felt the teaser was "coy about revealing too much of Nolan's take on Homer's saga".[77][78]
Release
The Odyssey is scheduled to be theatrically released by Universal Pictures in the United States on July 17, 2026, in IMAX,[17]IMAX 70 mm film formats,[79] and premium large formats (PLFs).[80] Tickets for select IMAX 70mm 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.[79] 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.[79][80]
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