Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Reveals First Look At Matt Damon As Odysseus
The greatest mystery of our time — and perhaps cinematic history itself — has finally been answered. After months of speculation over what, exactly, Christopher Nolan's next movie would even be, with rumors ranging from a vampire film to a blockbuster somehow involving "aerial helicopter pilots" (yeah, seriously), the answer arrived in the form of a new retelling of Homer's epic Greek poem "The Odyssey." With one mystery solved, the buzz instantly moved on to which stars in the A-list ensemble will portray each famous figure. Zendaya as Athena? Our favorite weirdo Robert Pattinson as the Cyclops? Tom Holland as Odysseus himself? Well, we now know the leading man who'll be tasked with portraying the most homesick man ever depicted in literature.
In a surprise social media post on X (formerly and forever known as Twitter), the official Universal Pictures account just ... tweeted it out. Matt Damon, who last collaborated with Nolan as a no-nonsense military man on "Oppenheimer" and previously appeared as a villainous castaway astronaut (named Mann, of course) in "Interstellar," will suit up in the cape, bushy beard, and awfully Spartan-looking helmet as Odysseus in "The Odyssey." The studio didn't just drop that casting bombshell on us (which was very similar to how it anticlimactically revealed the title for the 2026 movie, in fact), but it also went one step further and released a new still of Damon in action. Unfortunately, it's quite a departure from his rather Shakespearean cameos in "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Thor: Love and Thunder," but we won't hold that against Nolan too much.
Check out our first look at Damon's Odysseus below!
Matt Damon suits up as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey
It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Matt Damon's Odysseus absolutely peacocking as Odysseus in fully ancient Greek attire — or, at least, the version of ancient Greek attire popularized by countless movies over the decades. We've yet to discover how the vast majority of this ensemble cast will shake out as various figures from the epic myth, a motley crew of characters that range from Odysseus desperately trying to make his way back home after the decade-long Trojan War (for those uncultured swine who somehow had never heard about "The Odyssey" before news of Christopher Nolan's adaptation hit, you might want to check out that "prequel" titled "The Iliad" for more on that) to the various Greek gods who decide to make Odysseus' journey a living hell to monsters like Polyphemus (aka the Cyclops) or the sea monster Scylla and her giant whirlpool partner in crime Charybdis. At the very least, however, we can look forward to the ever-stoic Damon attempting to fend off each and every one of those threats for what's sure to be an epic-sized runtime.
Matt Damon is Odysseus. A film by Christopher Nolan, #TheOdysseyMovie is in theaters July 17, 2026. pic.twitter.com/7a5YbfqVfG
— odysseymovie (@odysseymovie) February 17, 2025
The new photo from "The Odyssey" doesn't give much away about the tone or storytelling approach that Nolan will opt for here, including whether it'll be a more "grounded" retelling of the story (as much as one can possibly be) or a more extravagant adaptation that will unleash the full power of Zeus and the other bloodthirsty gods and demigods that Odysseus upsets along the way. But we can say that we're fully on board with whatever wildness Nolan has up his sleeve here ... though it'd be nice if he and Universal decided to give us a little more information on exactly who everyone else is playing here. Until then, feel free to recklessly speculate over whether Anne Hathaway will play Odysseus' wife Penelope while Holland plays their son Telemachus, or if Charlize Theron has been cast as Circe (while Jon Bernthal plays Zeus). I don't actually know, just spit-balling here.
"The Odyssey" will sail into theaters July 17, 2026.