Christopher Nolan doesn’t do small. After years of speculation, his historical fantasy epic The Odyssey, a sweeping reimagining of Homer’s ancient text, had its world premiere on July 6 at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London, before a wide theatrical release from Universal Pictures on July 17 across the US and UK. The film has since grossed more than $1.78 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing release in Universal Pictures history and the biggest film of Nolan’s career.
The Cast Behind Homer’s Epic
Matt Damon leads as Odysseus, the wandering king of Ithaca trying to claw his way home after decades at war and at sea, opposite Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope. But the ensemble around them is where the film gets genuinely wild: Tom Holland plays Telemachus, Zendaya takes on the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron plays Calypso, Samantha Morton is the sorceress Circe, Robert Pattinson plays Antinous, Jon Bernthal is Menelaus, and Benny Safdie rounds things out as Agamemnon. Rapper Travis Scott makes his acting debut as the film’s bard, and is, notably, the first face and voice audiences see on screen. The full breakdown of who plays who is worth a look if you’re trying to keep the gods and kings straight. Variety’s cast guide does that better than we can in one paragraph.
A $250 Million Bet on 70mm IMAX
With an estimated budget of $250 million, The Odyssey is among the most expensive films Nolan has ever made, and the first shot entirely on IMAX’s 70mm film cameras, a technical commitment that paid off at the box office: the film became the highest-grossing IMAX release in history with more than $540 million from IMAX screens alone, and Universal brought it back to select IMAX and 70mm screens on October 9 for a second run. Anne Hathaway told CBS Mornings that the format pushed the production to its physical and emotional limits, from location shoots to the sheer scale of what the cameras demanded on set.
Why It Matters
For a director who built his reputation bending time and reality, going back three thousand years to Greek literature feels like a natural next swing, and audiences treated it as event cinema: the film holds a 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore, and awards forecasters now have it at the front of the Best Picture race for the 99th Academy Awards. It arrives at home on November 17, when Universal releases it on digital platforms and on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray with exclusive special features. A subscription streaming date has not been announced by Universal yet. Full cast, crew, and character details are up on IMDb if you want to go deeper before (or after) you watch.
