The Odyssey (2026 film)

Development and writing

By November 2023, director Christopher Nolan had yet to decide what his next film would be after Oppenheimer (2023). While he was receptive to various ideas for his follow-up, the director felt he would have to "own it completely".^[29] After winning several Academy Awards for Oppenheimer in March 2024, including Best Picture and Best Director,^[30][31] Nolan and his wife and producing partner, Emma Thomas, felt the success provided them the opportunity to explore what Nolan's next film would be.^[12][29] Nolan began writing the script shortly after,^[30][31] but Thomas said in May they had yet to deliberate on the practicalities of the production.^[29] 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 once again with Thomas through their production company, Syncopy, and filming was scheduled to begin in early 2025. Unlike Oppenheimer, which Universal acquired at auction, The Odyssey was set up at the studio and given a release date of July 17, 2026.^[32][33]

The logline and additional details of its premise were kept largely secret compared to Nolan's previous films, which prompted much speculation about its subject matter.^[34][35] This included rumors that it would either be a vampire period piece, a reboot of the 1983 helicopter action-thriller film Blue Thunder,^[36][34][35] or an adaptation of the British spy television series The Prisoner (1967–1968), which Nolan was previously attached to in 2009,^[30][32] but all of these were debunked.^[34][35][32] Nolan later reflected the "disadvantage of never telling people what we're doing" was the invention and circulation of rumors, though he nonetheless enjoyed them.^[36] In December 2024, Universal announced Nolan's new film as The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem, the Odyssey. The studio described it as a "mythic action epic" that would be filmed worldwide.^[37][38] Nolan was previously attached to direct Troy (2004)—based on Homer's Odyssey predecessor the Iliad—that Wolfgang Petersen had developed for Warner Bros. Pictures, before Petersen chose to direct Troy and Nolan subsequently made Batman Begins (2005).^[39][40][41] Nolan believed he was "in a little over [his] head" for Troy, but felt he had become more qualified to adapt the "sweeping story" of the Odyssey after working on several large-scale productions during the following 20 years.^[12][42] The Odyssey was expected to be the most expensive film of Nolan's career with a net budget of $250 million.^[43][3]

Nolan described The Odyssey as the largest and most challenging production of his career due to its scale.^[44] He explained that he chose to adapt the Odyssey because it had not been adapted into a large-scale production from a major Hollywood studio, calling it "an odd gap in movie history".^[12] Nolan and Thomas described The Odyssey as "foundational" because it incorporates aspects of the horror, mystery, romance, and thriller genres of stories.^{[9]: 59 [42]} Nolan read and studied the Odyssey and several of its translations, including those by classicists Emily Wilson, E. V. Rieu, and Robert Fagles.^[12][13] He wrote the script in a non-linear fashion.^[45] While the script was said to be "very faithful" to Homer's text, Nolan made some alterations, such as more prominently featuring Odysseus's faithful dog Argos; more interactions between Odysseus and Telemachus; humanizing the goddess and witch Circe to be unsettling yet sympathetic; and complicating the reunion between Helen of Troy and Spartan king Menelaus.^[12] He was interested in portraying Odysseus's cleverness and inventiveness, particularly citing his characterization in Wilson's 2017 translation of the Odyssey.^[7]

To combine the Odyssey's fantastical elements with Nolan's use of "tactile realism", the director chose to take a realistic approach in depicting the evidence and actions of the gods through natural phenomena once considered "supernatural" during the story's time period. Nolan called this a "big breakthrough creatively".^{[9]: 59 [12]} Nolan cited Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) and Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985) as major inspirations, particularly regarding its visual style and atmospheric tone.^[13] Nolan also drew inspiration from various Greek mythology–inspired films he watched in his youth, particularly the works of animator and special effects artist Ray Harryhausen.^[42] Nolan had considered casting actors to portray Greek gods throwing thunderbolts from Mount Olympus, but found depicting the characters' fear of the gods' actions provided a more immersive experience than outright showing the gods.^[12]

Casting

By October 2024, Matt Damon was in talks to star after collaborating with Nolan on Oppenheimer and Interstellar (2014).^[32][33] Damon was confirmed to star later in October when Tom Holland was cast.^[46] 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,^[47][34] alongside Zendaya,^[47] Lupita Nyong'o,^[48] and Charlize Theron.^[35] Damon, Holland, Hathaway, and Pattinson were all set for lead roles, with Nyong'o and Zendaya having supporting roles.^[34] Pattinson was the only actor who requested to read the script before signing on.^[11]

Further casting took place throughout early 2025, with prior Nolan collaborators Benny Safdie,^[49] Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin,^[50] Josh Stewart,^[51] Anthony Molinari,^[52] and James Remar joining.^[53] Patel was quietly offered his part in December 2024.^[54] Additional actors cast alongside them were Jon Bernthal,^[55] John Leguizamo,^[56] Samantha Morton,^[50] Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee,^[57] Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez,^[27] Mia Goth,^[58] Corey Hawkins,^[59] Nick E. Tarabay, Jimmy Gonzales, Maurice Compte,^[28] Michael Vlamis, Iddo Goldberg,^[20] Ryan Hurst,^[60] Jovan Adepo,^[61] and Sean Avery.^[25] Cosmo Jarvis had also been cast,^[62] but dropped out shortly before filming began due to a scheduling conflict and was subsequently replaced by Logan Marshall-Green.^[63] Marshall-Green initially self-taped in December, and was offered a callback in January which he declined; two months later, he was offered the role when Jarvis dropped out.^[64] Skeet Ulrich said he unsuccessfully read for a role in early February alongside two other actors.^[65]

Universal confirmed that Damon was portraying Odysseus in the middle of February, ahead of the start of filming later that month. This came after some rumors had circulated that Holland could be playing the role;^[6] Holland was later confirmed to be portraying Odysseus's son, Telemachus.^[8] To prepare for his role, Damon underwent an extensive training regimen and a strict diet to become "lean but strong", which included no longer consuming gluten and reducing his weight to 167 pounds (76 kilograms).^[66] He also grew a full beard for a year, after Nolan declined to use artificial facial hair because he wanted to capture "the physicality of real hair".^[67][66]

Design and special effects

Production designer Ruth De Jong and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick returned to work with Nolan from Oppenheimer.^[68][69][12] Mirojnick discussed her emphasis "on tactility—giving every piece of linen, leather, armour and sandal the texture and dimensions of lived history." Her costume design extended to the Mycenaean Greece costumes for both kings and soldiers, and the draping costumes of both Athena and Calypso.^[70] De Jong designed the sets and ornaments, including the 36 foot (11 metres) tall and 8,800-pound model of the Trojan Horse that was transported in 27 crates to the sea shore.^[70][71] To depict the armor, weapons, and ships, Nolan said that the production thoroughly researched the "very fragmentary archeological records" of the Bronze Age and Ancient Greece during Homer's life. On the production choices, Nolan explained that the "oldest depictions of Homeric characters tend to be depicted in the manner of people living in Homer's time. So there's a pretty strong case there for portraying things that way because that's the way the first audience received the story." Nolan added that Mirojnick sought to convey through the armor worn by Agamemnon that he had an elevated status by using materials more expensive to obtain, such as blackened bronze, silver, and sulfur.^[12] The Cyclops was achieved via a combination of animatronics, puppetry, and an on-set performance by Bill Irwin, with its design taking influence from the Francisco Goya painting Saturn Devouring His Son.^[16] Likewise the sequence where Circe transforms Odysseus' crew into pigs was achieved though a combination of animatronics, puppetry, makeup effects and stage magic techniques.^[72][73] Wētā Workshop provided special effects for the production.^[74]

Filming

Principal photography lasted for 91 days between February 25 and August 5, 2025,^[11][75] using the working title Charlie's Tale,^[76] and wrapped nine days ahead of schedule.^[12] Location shooting primarily took place in six countries: Morocco, Western Sahara, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, and the United States.^[11][77] Nolan sought to embrace the "physicality of the real world" by filming on location to help inform the storytelling and capture "how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world." The director felt that the shifting weather conditions amplified this practical approach due to the challenges they posed.^[42] Hoyte van Hoytema reunited with Nolan as cinematographer.^[6]

After using IMAX 70 mm film extensively since The Dark Knight (2008), The Odyssey became the first feature film shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, primarily using a newly manufactured lighter and quieter version Nolan had specifically developed for the production alongside older versions.^[38][78][79] For close-up scenes requiring audible dialogue, the IMAX cameras were often concealed in large sound blimps on set, while a system of mirrors was set up to help the actors maintain eye contact when the cameras obscured their view.^[12][79] Over 2 million feet (610 kilometres) of IMAX 70 mm film was used to shoot The Odyssey.^[42] As a single IMAX camera can only hold roughly three minutes of film, actors had to pause during longer scenes while the camera was reloaded before resuming their performances.^[80][81]

The Odyssey was filmed in six different countries, particularly on location at the Aït Benhaddou village in Morocco, the Voidokilia beach in Greece, the island of Favignana in Italy, the Hjörleifshöfði mountain in Iceland, Findlater Castle in Scotland, and the White Dune near Dakhla, Western Sahara.

The first scenes were filmed in late February at the Aït Benhaddou village near Ouarzazate, Morocco,^{[75][9]: 56–57} to depict the city of Troy at the end of the Trojan War in an appetizer sequence before the bulk of The Odyssey,^{[9]: 56–57 [82]} as well as in the cities of Essaouira and Marrakesh.^[83][84] Van Hoytema rigged numerous portable LEDs to emulate the specific firelight color temperature for the midnight raid of Troy, allowing Nolan to film in any direction.^[12] Filming took place in the Messenia unit of the Peloponnese region in Greece, from March 10 to 21, at Pylos, the Methoni Castle, the Almyrolakkos beach in Yialova, and Nestor's Cave in the Voidokilia beach for scenes featuring the Cyclops Polyphemus, as well as at an archaeological palace site in Acrocorinth, Corinth.^[85][86][87] The production partnered with Faliro House Productions's NAF subsidiary for filming in Greece,^[87] which lasted three weeks.^[88] The production received over €6.5 million ($7.5 million) in funding from Greece's Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center S.A. (Creative Greece), as part of its approximate €140 million ($160 million) investment in over 200 local and international productions,^[89][90] as well as a 40% cash rebate.^[88][91]

By March 27, the production moved to the Aegadian Islands in Sicily, Italy, to film on the island of Favignana, believed to be the location known as the "goat island" in the poem.^[92][68] Water-borne filming subsequently took place from April 15 to May 15 throughout the Aeolian Islands of Lipari, Basiluzzo, and Vulcano for scenes featuring the mythological island of Aeolia. Filming in these regions was subject to certain safeguarding restrictions from local ordinances,^[93][92] with Fremantle's Italian production company Wildside servicing the shoot.^[92] For the maritime sequences, the production used the largest modern Viking longship, the Draken Harald Hårfagre, which doubled as an ancient Greek warship that the actors portraying Odysseus's crew commanded,^{[9]: 55 [42][94]} and was sailed to each of the filming locations.^[12] Nolan described filming at sea as a particularly primal experience.^[42]

Halfway through shooting by early May, filming took place at the Falls Lake water tank on the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles, the production's only set constructed on a studio sound stage,^{[9]: 55 [95][11]} before shooting at Findlater Castle in Moray, Scotland, in early June.^[96] For ten days in late June, the production partnered with Truenorth in remote regions of Iceland, including the harbor Landeyjahöfn, the Hjörleifshöfði mountain, the river Markarfljót, and the Snæfellsnes peninsula,^[61][76] primarily to shoot scenes on their black sand beaches for the Greek underworld of Hades,^{[9]: 55 [77]} before returning to Scotland for scenes at the Buckie Harbour along the Moray Firth coast and at the secluded Sunnyside Beach near Cullen, Moray.^[25][94] Filming took place in the Culbin Forest from July 3 to 16,^[25] where the giant Laestrygonians were portrayed using a variety of practical techniques including forced perspective, wire work,^[97] and having seven-foot tall stuntmen play the giants opposite five-foot tall body doubles for the other members of the cast.^[98] Damon's double for the scene was four-foot-six stuntwoman Devyn Dalton, and an image of her from behind appears in one of the film's posters as well.^[99] The Laestrygonians are portrayed as having more technologically sophisticated armor and weaponry than anything previously encountered by Odysseus to emphasize the brutality of the encounter and test his leadership.^[97] Filming returned to Findlater Castle through July 25,^[25] with Theron filming her scenes during the last two weeks in July.^[100] Some filming also took place in Malta for Calypso's Cave,^[101][102] before concluding back at the Universal lot for most of the last week of filming.^[11][102] Filming was reportedly set to occur in Ireland and the United Kingdom.^[92][103]

Filming took place between July 17 and 22, with Damon and Zendaya, at the White Dune near Dakhla, Western Sahara,^[82][104] a territory under Moroccan occupation since 1975.^{[105][106][107]} The UN-recognized Polisario Front and organizers of the Sahara International Film Festival decried the decision to film in Western Sahara as whitewashing Morocco's colonialism.^[83][105] The festival's organizers called for the production to be halted, but filming in the territory had already concluded.^[105][106] They subsequently released a statement calling on Nolan to obtain consent from "the legal representatives of the Sahrawi people" or otherwise remove the scenes shot in Dakhla. This statement was signed 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.^{[108][109][110]} Meanwhile, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center called The Odyssey an important production to promote the Moroccan film industry and said that it was the first major American film to be filmed in that territory.^[83][84]

Post-production

Over 2 million feet of 15-perf 65mm negative film stock shot for The Odyssey was developed and processed at FotoKem in Burbank, the last film laboratory producing 70mm prints.^[111] The cost of the film stock alone totaled to roughly $3 million.^[112] The film stock was scanned and converted into high resolution digital files for editor Jennifer Lame to make initial cuts. The film negative would then be cut and spliced by hand.^[113] Color grading was done through the analog method of color filters on a light table with numerical values assigned to each shot for the final print.^[113]

Theatrical

The Odyssey held its world premiere on July 6, 2026, at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London.^[150] As part of the global promotional tour, a two-day promotional showcase and official premiere event was held from July 10 to 11, 2026, in Mumbai, marking the first time a film directed by Christopher Nolan held an official premiere event in India.^[151][152] Another premiere was held on July 14, 2026, at the AMC Theatres venue on Lincoln Square in New York City.^[153]

The Odyssey was released theatrically by Universal Pictures on July 17, 2026, in the United States and the United Kingdom.^[38] It has been presented in a variety of aspect ratios depending on the exhibition format: 1.43:1 on IMAX 70 mm film prints, 1.90:1 on IMAX digital screens, 2.20:1 on 70 mm film prints, 2.39:1 on 35 mm prints, and either 2.39:1 or 1.85:1 for other premium large format (PLF) screens, such as D-Box and RX, depending on the specifications of individual auditoriums.^[154] Only 41 screens worldwide can present the film in IMAX 70mm, 25 in the United States, 9 in Canada, 3 in the UK, and 1 each in Australia, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic, with the IMAX Melbourne screen in Australia being the only venue in the Southern Hemisphere capable of doing so.^[81][155] This is an increase from the 30 IMAX 70mm prints for Nolan's previous film Oppenheimer, due to an effort from the IMAX Corporation to locate, refurbish and install disused IMAX 70mm projectors, as well as train 60 new projectionists.^[156] The Odyssey is scheduled to be released theatrically in China, on nearly 800 IMAX screens on August 14, 2026, with early previews beginning on August 1 and 2 in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.^[157]

Home media

The Odyssey will be available on digital platforms and Ultra HD Blu-ray from November 17, 2026, 120 days after its theatrical release.^[158] Presented in a 4K HDR transfer in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, the decision to simultaneously release on UHD Blu-Ray and digital has been interpreted as part of Nolan's longstanding proponency for physical media over streaming.^[159]

Box office

As of August 27, 2026^[update], The Odyssey has grossed $550 million in the United States and Canada, and $930 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.48 billion.^[4][5][160] Produced on a $250 million budget, The Odyssey is among the most expensive of Nolan's career and is one of the most expensive films ever made.^[43] The film became Nolan's first to surpass $1 billion since The Dark Knight Rises.^[161]

Accolades

Critical response

The film received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for the performances, sets, scale, and Nolan's direction.^[182] On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 503 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Reinvigorating an ancient adventure with majestic sweep and sterling work by its colossal ensemble, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey imbues myth with primal human feeling."^[183] It is Nolan's highest-rated film on the website.^[169] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned it a score of 88 out of 100, based on 63 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[184] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while 81% of those surveyed at PostTrak said they would definitely recommend it.^[169]

Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave The Odyssey four out of four, calling it "another feather in Nolan's masterpiece cap, a grandiose achievement that fills audiences with the same child-like glee experienced when watching Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans for the first time".^[185] Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald gave The Odyssey four out of five, writing that Nolan "has a way with a time paradox" and that "he can take one of the oldest stories in Western culture and make it feel new".^[186] In The Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin gave it five out of five and wrote: "Nolan and his collaborators have constructed a strange, fearsome and trailblazing machine of a movie – by some distance, the best of the year so far."^[187] Alistair Harkness of The Scotsman and Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent also gave it five out of five; Harkness called it "a thrilling, thoughtful, bloody epic", writing that it "feels like Nolan's angriest film" and one of his best.^[188] Loughrey called it "a blockbuster of literally unprecedented scale", and Nolan's best film.^[189] In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote: "It is an anomalous big-studio entertainment that Nolan has filled with stars and polished to a high gleam, turning a 3,000-year-old poem into a smart, thoughtful film with Old Hollywood allure."^[190] Justin Chang of The New Yorker praised Nolan's realistic approach and wrote that his rationalism provides "just the note of real-world groundedness that a great fantasy needs to achieve liftoff".^[191]

However, there was some criticism for the sound mixing, dialogue, and deviations from its source material.^[182] Richard Brody of The New Yorker felt that Nolan "turns an epic poem prosaic".^[192] In Time, Stephanie Zacharek called it an "eye-glazing dud".^[193] Odie Henderson of The Boston Globe gave The Odyssey two and a half out of five, writing: "Pattinson has fun channeling Roddy McDowall's snarky performance in Cleopatra. But like that epic flop, The Odyssey takes itself too seriously. The film ultimately sinks under its bleakness like a lead balloon."^[194] Mohamed Sleiman Labat in The Guardian criticized "the decision to shoot in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, where the Indigenous [Sahrawis] people can't tell their stories without fear of imprisonment", and accused Nolan of participating in a "state-sponsored PR campaign designed to legitimise an illegal occupation".^[195]

Views of Nolan's interpretation of Homer's poem

Critics have noted multiple differences between Nolan's and Homer's versions of The Odyssey. Some have questioned whether Nolan accurately depicts Mycenaean Greece; others have argued that Homer's epic was simply a myth, and others again have stated that while The Odyssey is a story, it was rooted in history.^[196] The film has been described as both the "most anticipated" and the "most contested" of 2026.^[197]

The process of adapting an ancient book-length poem to a single 172-minute film makes changes and omissions inevitable.^[198] Nolan cut some plot elements and characters, including several gods, while attempting to preserve an "appropriate tone". He decided to portray Odysseus as a veteran tired of war and haunted by slaughter. That offers a modern explanation for the length of Odysseus's homecoming—that he was avoiding going home.^[199] The historian Andrew E. Larsen admired the film's look, but considered the Greek costumes unhistorically drab, and found Agamemnon's armour silly.^[200] The classicist Armand D'Angour liked the use of an ancient musical instrument, the aulos.^[201] Others critiqued the armour and ship designs.^{[77][202][203]} Some critics argued that the adaptation reshaped the poem's ancient moral framework to align with modern attitudes.^[192][204] The casting of the Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy was criticised by conservative American commentators as blackwashing.^{[205][206][207][90]} Several commentators called this criticism racist.^{[208][209][206][207]} Larsen commented that Greek literature accepted the black princess Andromeda as extremely beautiful.^[200]

The English classicist Mary Beard criticised the film as "an Odyssey without the sex" or the humour of the original. She called the character dynamics "feebly handled", and that the adaptation failed to capture the nuances of Homer's text.^[210][211] Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation inspired Nolan, called the result a simple action film^[212][213] lacking "psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth", abysmally written, and with "nothing convincing to say" about the Odyssey's major themes.^[214]

Others argued that Nolan's film succeeds on its own terms, creating a popular film matching the expectations of a modern audience.^{[204][201][215]} The British critic Peter Bradshaw praised the film's ambition and scope, offering a vision of grim resolution in the face of loss.^[216] Guy Lodge of Variety described it as a "vast, thrilling, slightly aloof epic", offering the audience so much that the chilliness works.^[217]

Casting choices

The casting of Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy—often described as the most beautiful woman in the world—was criticized by conservative commentators, such as Matt Walsh and Elon Musk, as blackwashing.^{[90][205][206][207]} Several commentators called this criticism racist,^{[208][206][207][209]} comparing it to similar casting criticisms of the docudrama Queen Cleopatra (2023) and the Disney film The Little Mermaid (2023).^[206][209] Referencing Greek professor Dimitris Liantinis, Philip Chrysopoulos of the Greek Reporter acknowledged that Homer described Helen as pale or "white-armed" but noted that he did not describe her in detail, allowing everyone to imagine her for themselves.^[218] Salon's CK Smith opined that the backlash over her depiction's alleged inaccuracy was "selective" and more about social issues over minority representation than about fidelity to the source material.^[206] Meanwhile, Nolan defended Nyong'o's casting, saying he believed the actress conveyed the "strength and the poise" he found essential for the role. Nyong'o opted to emphasize who Helen was beyond her appearance, stating, "You can't perform beauty". She added that the cast was meant to be "representative of the world" while "occupying the epic narrative of our time".^[205]

Another casting choice Nolan was criticized for was Elliot Page, whose role in the film was not initially announced but was rumored to be Achilles.^[209] Entertainment Weekly described some of the online backlash about Page as "transphobic memes about Page playing a role that may not even be his".^[219] Writing for The Guardian, Greek film critic Chris Cotonou called this an "honourable intention", but argued that it made the absence of Greek actors "even more glaring", as they are the people "most authentically connected to the source".^[208]

Linguistic register

The use of American accents and 21-century American English dialogue from the cast, including British actors Holland and Pattinson, was also criticized.^[145][220] James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter called this decision a "striking departure from the unwritten Hollywood rule of characters in historical epics employing British accents".^[145] Hibberd and Nell Geraets at The Sydney Morning Herald contended that using ancient Greek dialects would not be accessible for contemporary audiences,^[145][220] unlike an American accent.^[221] This change was perceived as anachronistic for an adaptation of ancient Greek literature,^[145] with Geraets noting neither British nor American accents were linguistically authentic to the ancient Greek setting,^[220] while Hibberd said using American accents "risks sounding a bit silly at times", unlike the "'just foreign enough'" modern British accent.^[145] Nolan insisted on the cast using American accents rather than British or Greek,^[54] which IGN's Scott Collura defended, noting that Wilson's translation of the poem similarly translated the text into plain English, quoting her rationale "Translation always, necessarily, involves interpretation."^[222] The accents and everyday language dialogue were mocked by some online commenters.^{[145][220][222]}

Memory, time, and autonomy

In discussing the themes with MS NOW, Nolan stated that "There are so many different themes, so many different elements of Homer's original poem that appear in movies and have been the sort of bedrock of Hollywood for so long... It hasn't really been told as a modern film for modern audiences. And so, for a director, that's a pretty thrilling opportunity to try and challenge yourself and try to bring something new to the table." For Daniel Chin, the central themes of the film are its emphasis on the nonlinear experience of time and the exploration of memory in the principal characters, especially of Odysseus and his alternating experience of remembering and forgetting his homeland in Ithaca.^[223] In his review for The Gospel Coalition, Brett McCracken sees the central theme in the film as that of human autonomy struggling with divine intervention as reflected both in the film and in its advertising poster tag-line "Defy the Gods", stating: "The Odyssey's marketing campaign tagline, 'Defy the gods,' is an extension of this theme (human autonomy). It's not that Nolan dislikes Greek mythology. He seems to appreciate it as a beautiful story that helped build Western civilization. But Damon's version of Odysseus doesn't particularly need the gods. He often feels skeptical of them ('Why can't God [sic] speak in ways we understand?') and puts faith more in himself than in deities."^[224]

Breakdown of societal norms and decorum

Critics interpreted the film as reframing The Odyssey into a meditation on the moral consequences of war and the erosion of the social norms and decorum that underpin civilization.^{[216][204][225]} The film explores the Greek concept of xenia—the mutual respect between hosts and guests—using it to reframe the Trojan Horse and Odysseus' journey as explorations of post traumatic stress disorder, war guilt, moral injury, and the breakdown of trust in civic norms, with some interpreting the film as a 21st-century political allegory.^{[216][226][225]}