Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Adds New Cast Members
Christopher Nolan’s next movie, an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, is filling out its cast as it prepares to go into production at the end of February. When the film was announced, we learned that the main cast would include Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, and Robert Pattinson. Since then, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, and Benny Safdie were revealed to have signed on for the movie. Today, four more officially joined the cast: Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, and formerly-Ellen-now-Elliot Page. Page’s involvement was first reported yesterday by Word of Reel, who speculated that the major entertainment media outlets would soon confirm it, which they did today. Nolan has worked with some of these actors before; Page was Ariadne in Inception, Bill Irwin was in Interstellar (or, at least, his voice was), Benny Safdie was in Oppenheimer, and Himesh Patel was in Tenet (which nobody but me seems to have liked). The Odyssey is scheduled to arrive in theaters – including IMAX theaters, where it will no doubt look spectacular, as it’s using, according to Universal Pictures, “brand new IMAX technology” – on July 17, 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 17, 2026.
— Universal Pictures (@UniversalPics) December 23, 2024
Cutting to the chase, Page is the addition getting the most attention, which is not exactly shocking. As I’m sure everyone knows, “Elliot Page” used to be Ellen Page, an actress who starred in films like Juno, Super, a couple of X-Men movies, and the aforementioned instant classic Inception. However, several years ago, Page underwent gender transition surgery and now calls herself Elliot Page. I don’t want to get too far into this, as I don’t think Page is a bad person, but I also don’t want to feed into something I think is harmful, to Page and to society. But it does make you wonder who she’ll be playing in The Odyssey since neither Nolan nor Universal have revealed which actors are playing which roles. It’s a dicey prospect, especially right now, since America – and possibly the world, depending on how the next four years go – is having a moment with many political issues, gender ideology among them. (I thought up a joke about Page playing one of Penelope’s suitors earlier, but again, I don’t want to be mean.) I doubt she’ll be Odysseus or anything like that, but I imagine the role will be a man. My best guess is that Page will be playing a mythological figure, a water nymph or something. It’s the easiest way of pleasing everyone and making Page’s casting as much of a non-issue as possible. (Well, it’ll be a non-issue for everyone except the usual virtue-signaling trades, all of whom will want Page to play Penelope but for Penelope to be a man in this version.)
Moving on, I’m interested in who the rest of the actors are playing, but I’m interested in who everyone is playing because we don’t know yet. I hope Matt Damon is Odysseus, but I have a feeling that’s going to be Robert Pattinson, which will not thrill me. Bill Irwin’s role in Interstellar, where he was the voice of the robot, made me think one of them will be the voice of the Cyclops, but I don’t imagine Irwin for that… I imagine Jon Bernthal. I can totally hear his gruff, gravely voice playing the one-eyed giant who captures Odysseus and his men, and Bernthal is a good enough actor to give the monster some pathos and humanity. Another thing I’m happy to hear is that Nolan will be filming at least part of The Odyssey on the Sicilian island of Favignana, which is where literary scholars believe Homer saw Odysseus and his men landing. When the film was announced, I wondered if Nolan would make a faithful adaptation of The Odyssey or a modern reworking of the poem, hoping for the former. This is hardly confirmation, of course – Nolan is also shooting the movie in the UK, Morocco, and other parts of Sicily – but it’s an indication that this will be a literal adaptation of the story. (The $250 million budget is another one.) And I hope it is; I want to see Nolan do something wildly different than anything he’s done before, and there have already been good Odyssey adaptations that brought the story into a modern (or more modern than 8th Century BC), with Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? being a great one. But above all, I’m looking forward to the next film from one of the most consistently fascinating directors working today.
Let us know what you think of the new additions to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in the comments!
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Comments (4)
John Leguizamo makes me wonder if this is a modern take, because I don’t see him being able to play someone from centuries ago. That eternal smirk is too distracting. I’m not a fan of his either, and I don’t like the Ellen Page thing, but I usually give directors I like a lot the benefit of the doubt. I’ll see this, but I’m getting progressively more unsure.
Maybe Zendaya and Ellen will be a couple. That’s the only way I’ll watch now.
That would’ve been hot maybe ten years ago. Now, it’s as weird as everything else about this nonsense.
Casting Elliot Page is like casting Ezra Miller or Seth Rogen, all of whom are on my do NOT watch list, so I will pass on this movie. It will be awful. No director of any skill or taste would ever cast people like this. I look at the list of actors and is there even one Greek person? Interesting, that in “diverse” Hollywood, there is not a well known Greek one.
John Leguizamo has never been good. When he started, I tried to follow his “comedy” and it was never funny.
The thing about movies and shows and music though is that it can appeal to anyone for any reason, but this is just not for me.