Apple TV Finds the Greatest ‘Odyssey’ Substitute in Brad Pitt’s Historical Action Epic That’s Taking Over Streaming

If you’ve been scouring Apple TV for a grand adventure to fill the ancient-epic void, you are far from alone. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has recently dominated the cultural conversation. But streaming audiences have latched onto a very specific 2004 throwback while waiting for Nolan’s epic to hit streaming. Interestingly enough, the film tells the bloody backstory of the universe that Nolan adapts. 

According to FlixPatrol, Wolfgang Petersen’s sword-and-sandal epic Troy has carved out a permanent, dominant residency on Apple TV’s daily charts. It is sitting comfortably at No. 2 in the United States and pulling in a massive wave of viewers.

Turns out, when streaming options leave viewers with franchise fatigue, the internet collectively goes back to the beach where a thousand ships launched. That’s why, 22 years after its theatrical run, the 163-minute historical action film is finding a fresh generation of fans. They are treating it both as a companion to Homer’s broader Greek epic tradition and a substitute for The Odyssey. 

Troy is getting a massive streaming second wind

Troy is armed with a script by David Benioff and a cast that reads like an impossible Hollywood fever dream. The movie takes Homer’s Iliad and strips it of its actual gods. It opts instead for a muddy and wildly dramatic power struggle that treats ancient Greek geopolitics like a soap opera. 

Brad Pitt leads the charge as Achilles, the brooding warrior who spends half the movie looking intensely annoyed and the other half redefining action with a gravity-defying leap toward Eric Bana’s Hector. 

Alongside them, the ensemble features Orlando Bloom as the ultimate scapegoat Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen of Troy, and Sean Bean playing an effortlessly wise Odysseus. Peter O’Toole also delivers a masterclass in quiet devastation as King Priam.

The unmistakable connection between Troy and The Odyssey

Aside from being an absolute cinematic masterpiece, Troy’s connection to The Odyssey might be the reason it’s soaring to the top of the charts before Nolan’s epic hits streaming on Nov. 17.

Troy acts as a loose retelling of the Trojan War. It focuses on Achilles, Hector, Paris, Helen, and the eventual fall of the city. In that, it essentially serves as the prologue to Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Chronologically, the timeline lines up cleanly. 

In Troy, the Trojan War rages, Troy falls, Sean Bean’s Odysseus helps the Greeks secure victory, and the surviving heroes leave for home. Meanwhile, Nolan’s The Odyssey is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Matt Damon steps in as a more wily, complicated Odysseus, tackling his grueling journey past Cyclopes, Circe, and Calypso to finally reunite with Penelope in Ithaca.

It is worth noting that Nolan’s blockbuster is not an official sequel to Petersen’s 2004 film. This explains why the casting room got an entirely new coat of paint. While Sean Bean played Odysseus in Troy, Matt Damon takes up the mantle in Nolan’s version. Similarly, Troy‘s Agamemnon, played by Brian Cox, gets swapped out for Benny Safdie in the 2026 film.

For viewers looking to maximize their marathon, watching Troy first acts as an elite cheat code to understand the political bloodshed, grudges, and broken alliances leading directly into The Odyssey. However, you don’t strictly need to watch Sean Bean fight a war to appreciate Matt Damon dodging mythological monsters.

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