Unpacking The Odyssey Trailer With Vague but Confident High School Knowledge
Let's try to remember our high school lessons.
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is the next film from the Oscar winning director. And a lot of people are realizing that their high school knowledge of Homer’s epic poem may come in handy. Or at least, we all think it will.
I am someone who read both The Iliad and The Odyssey back to back in school. Meaning my knowledge of the two cross into each other and names get blurred and I’m not really sure what is historical fact and what I learned through Homer. So why not allow me to explain what we’re seeing in the new trailer for Nolan’s film, set to release in the summer of 2026?
The official trailer for The Odyssey details Odysseus’ (Matt Damon) journey to Troy and back. Yes, Helen of Troy is from the world of Homer and isn’t real. Sorry if you thought a bunch of men piled into a horse and tricked an entire walled off town into letting them in so that they could fight. That is the imagination of the Greeks.
What we do get to see in the official trailer is a glimpse at Tom Holland’s Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, as well as Anne Hathaway as Penelope. And most importantly: The Cyclops. There are important moments within both poems fans remember. Obviously the Trojan Horse is a big one. Basically, you need to know a bunch of dudes got in a fake horse to break into a walled city. But Achilles is in The Iliad, from what I remember.
Is the maze with the minotaur in this one or The Iliad? I’m not looking it up as someone meant to be breaking this down with knowledge I had 15+ years ago. Anyway, there are some really cool things in both of Homer’s epic poems so we’ll be in for a treat.
When do we embark on this journey?
Nolan’s next film is set to release on July 17, 2026. Which is a similar time to his other films. Oppenheimer was released on July 21, 2023 and Tenet was originally slated for July 17, 2020 before the pandemic changed its release schedule. Maybe the summer should always belong to Christopher Nolan movies?
As of right now, there is no other film announced that will have the “Barbenheimer” effect of Oppenheimer‘s release with Barbie. But who knows. Maybe someone will sneakily release their version of The Iliad at the same time.
Who else will we see?
Outside of Damon, Hathaway, and Holland, the film has a pretty stacked cast. Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron are all playing a part in Christopher Nolan’s film and, for the most part, a lot of the stars are experiencing their first Nolan film! Nolan is known as a director who likes to work with the same actors time and time again.
The Odyssey marks his third film with Hathaway, his third with Damon, and his second with Pattinson after Tenet. So even if you cannot remember the plot of The Odyssey before you head into theaters, at least familiar faces will help you.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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