Matt Damon in The Odyssey
Ever since we learned that Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan was making an adaptation of The Odyssey, I’ve been overcome by doubt. At first, the news was pretty exciting. I’m not a Nolan fanatic, but I loved his Dark Knight trilogy and many of his other films, like Memento, Inception and Interstellar.
Then I found out that Matt Damon had been cast as Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s classic adventure. Damon has done some great work in the past, especially in films like his breakout Good Will Hunting, but he felt wrong for this role. Someone like Ralph Fiennes – who starred in last year’s The Return, also about Odysseus – fits the part much better.
More casting news kept rolling in and the more I learned, the more I worried. Tom Holland will play Odysseus’s son, Telemachus. And if that wasn’t Spider-Man enough for you, Zendaya is also on board. I like Jon Bernthal, but between him, Damon and Zendaya this entire production was starting to feel decidedly American. It’s probably just personal taste, but I prefer foreign historical epics to either have the regional language or accent, or to have British accents. (The exception to this rule is for more comedic or fantastical projects like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves).
Robert Pattinson is a Brit, just like Holland, but both speak with American accents in the newly leaked trailer for the 2026 film. Pattinson (seemingly) narrates the opening, channeling his Lighthouse co-star Willem Dafoe.
“Darkness. Zeus’ laws smashed to pieces. A kingdom without a king since my master died,” he says as the camera pans over a dark ocean. “He knew it was an unwinnable war, and then somehow…somehow he won it.”
The trailer, which is currently playing in theaters but has leaked onto TikTok, X, Reddit and elsewhere, gives us what appears to be glimpses of the Trojan Horse, then moves to a scene between Holland’s Telemachus and Bernthal’s mystery character. Bernthal appears to be playing a soldier of some sort, perhaps an old companion of Odysseus. “I know nothing of Odysseus, not since Troy,” he says.
“I have to find out what happened to my father. When did you last see him?” Telemachus replies. They sit together with other men gathered nearby. “Interested in rumor, huh? Gossip. Who has a story about Odysseus, huh?” Bernthal’s character hollers at the surrounding men. “You? You have a story?”
Bernthal continues in voice-over as we see shots of a cavern, men walking toward a city at night, flags waving. “Some say he’s rich or some say he’s poor,” Bernthal says. “Some say he perished. Some say he’s imprisoned. What say you?”
“Imprisoned?” Telemachus replies. “What kind of prison? Good, old man like that,” Bernthal says. We see the ocean again, and Odysseus floating on a makeshift raft. The date 17.07.26 appears.
Many things bother me about this trailer and about the film in general. I have trouble explaining why I dislike celebrity-ridden, star-studded casts like this, and perhaps it is just personal taste, but here are some of the other cast members: Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, Corey Hawkins, Cosmo Jarvis and more. Many of these are excellent actors, and some aren’t what I would call “celebrities” but I assume even excellent, lesser-known – but incredibly talented – British actors like Jarvis will have an American accent here.
I had this same issue with Dennis Villeneau’s Dune films. This many big names, especially in big epics like this, detract from the immersion. I don’t want to recognize everyone. I want smaller, lesser-known actors to have a chance to make their names in big ensemble casts. Even films like Robert Eggers’ The Northman would have benefited from fewer big names. Nothing takes me out of a violent Norse epic like Nicole Kidman. There are so many talented, lesser-known actors out there to fill these kinds of roles. I love that Quentin Tarantino, when assembling his “star-studded” Pulp Fiction used mostly lesser-known stars or actors who had dropped off the face of the earth since their heyday, like John Travolta (and what a comeback he had).
I try to explain this by recasting Lord Of The Rings using really famous actors from the early 2000’s (which already had a handful of big stars). Brad Pitt as Aragorn. Russell Crowe as Boromir. Leonardo DiCaprio as Pippin . . . and so on and so forth. Great actors, sure, but right for the cast? I prefer more newcomers and more established character actors who aren’t necessarily household names. Aren’t we glad that Viggo Mortensen was given Aragorn? That an established but still lesser-known actor like Sean Bean was given Boromir? I’ve made my peace with Elijah Wood as Frodo, but at the time I really wished they’d cast someone less recognizable.
Watching a leaked trailer can only tell you so much about a film, of course, but I’m not loving the look of the costumes, either. Or the muted aesthetic, drained of color. And I’m sure the sound mix will be . . . muffled, to say the least.
I’m also worried about Nolan himself and his tendencies as a filmmaker. Again, I have thoroughly enjoyed many of his movies, but unlike most people I found Oppenheimer to be needlessly complex. The big “reveal” toward the end and the way he fiddled with chronology were at once confusing and unnecessary. I wasn’t shocked by the twist. I was nonplussed. Great performances aside, the movie was too long and too muddled. It was visually and sonically astonishing, but Nolan’s focus on crafting another mind-bending plot instead of prioritizing his characters and their personal journey made it feel emotionally empty. It was heavy but without heft. Will we get a similar treatment in The Odyssey? Does an adventure story like this need multiple timelines or big twists? Does it need to be dark and colorless?
Of course, I’d still rather see Nolan at the helm than Ridley Scott. Scott has made some great films also, but his more recent efforts have fallen short. Napoleon, Gladiator II . . . what tremendous disappointments. Or Zack Snyder, for that matter. I shudder at the thought.
We shall see a year from now, and probably several trailers later. What do you think? And before you say this isn’t fair, that I should not – must not! – judge a movie by its trailer: This is how the world works. We all judge movies by their trailers. A movie studio is tasked with putting its best foot forward in its marketing. They are trying to sell us a thing. We are allowed to have opinions about the thing they’re trying to sell us. I grow very weary of fans acting like the only opinion allowed is glee and frothing excitement. A critical eye never hurts. If nothing else, setting our expectations lower can help us enjoy the final product more when it comes out.
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