Elon Musk’s Predictable Backlash to The Odyssey’s Lupita Nyong’o Casting

The worst people you’ve heard of are mad that Lupita Nyong’o is playing an iconic character in The Odyssey.

This week, we all learned that the Oscar-winner will be playing Menelaus’s wife Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic. (h/t to Time for that scoop.) That sounds amazing, but the usual suspects are upset that Nyong’o is the legendary beauty in the upcoming film.

A lot of people point to some particular interpretations of Helen in their criticism. But, to take any of that seriously, you would have to ignore the other anachronistic elements of The Odyssey that the Internet has spent the better part of two weeks arguing about.

It’s clear that Nolan has something interesting planned for this highly-anticipated movie. We can’t even enjoy Jon Bernthal as a king and Lupita as one of the hottest women in myth without losers trying to “well actually” us. Remember when we just used to enjoy a film? I miss that.

If that weren’t cool enough. Nolan also has Nyong’o playing Helen’s sister Clytemnestra in the piece as well. So, there’s definitely something cool bubbling under the surface here. If we can ignore the controversy long enough to get there.

The Odyssey casts Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy

Of course, when we’re talking about losers, we’re singling out Matt Walsh and Elon Musk. These two knuckleheads think that no one believes Lupita is a good choice for “the most beautiful woman in the world.” But, a lot of the consensus might surprise them.

On social media, Walsh made his point and Musk chimed-in with a quick, “true.” It’s basically laughable how open the racism has become on the SpaceX billionaire’s platform. However, folks who have been paying attention are not the least bit surprised.

“Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world,’” Walsh argued. “But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave’“the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented but a coward.” 

What exactly are we doing here?

In a moment of insult to injury, Musk also argued that Nolan must just be trying to get into some sort of imaginary diversity threshold to be in awards contention. It’s all embarrassing. Though, not completely surprising in this day and age.

We all know that The Odyssey is going to be, at minimum, pretty good. The casting of Helen is just a fun little bit of a much larger film. People can complain about Elliot Page’s masculinity or hate Black people all they want. All that petty grievance drives social media stats, but not dollars at the box office.

(featured image: SHAYAN ASGHARNIA/Universal Pictures)

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