Greeks and Geeks
Deep diving into the lore behind our favourite Myth, Fantasy and Sci-Fi stories.
Greeks and Geeks
Christopher Nolan's Odyssey: Predictions and Analysis
In the final days of 2024, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey was announced to released in Summer of 2026. We had an immediate list of cast members but no roles attached to their names as of that point. People. Went. Nuts. Christopher Nolan is such a well loved director and The Odyssey is a timeless epic.
In this episode, let's discuss predictions for the movie, hopes and some worries too. We'll also discuss the controversies and inaccuracies that are already coming out from the production images.
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Dawn breaks over a city in ruins. Buildings lay in heaps of ash, dead bodies outnumber the living and the streets are stained with the blood of the fallen. As Helios pulls the sun across the sky in his golden chariot, the Gods survey the damage, and horror pools in their stomach. Even those that were aching for this city’s downfall, now have to turn their back on it, unable to stand the sight. This is Troy, a once proud city, now utterly devastated by the victorious Greeks. At last, after 10 years, they have been won and Queen Helen, the woman whom they waged war for, is now back with her husband. Finally, the Greeks are free of the oath which lead them to join her husband Menelaus in the mission to get her back. And the architect of that oath, indeed the architect of Troy’s downfall, is preparing his fleet to sail back to his home. It’s been ten long years since he’s seen his family, his kingdom, and he’s eager to return.
But a memory flickers at the back of his mind, bothering him like the midges which hang around the Scamander in the evenings, the reason he fought so hard to avoid joining the war to begin with. Penelope, his wife, begged him not to go. An oracle told her he wouldn’t return for many years. But…didn’t she say he’d be gone twenty years, not ten?
The waves lap against the shore, the faint scent of smoke hangs on his clothes and Odysseus shakes his head. Well, oracles can be wrong, he thinks, and perhaps his wooden horse plan changed their fate and shortened the war?
He steps onto his ship, surrounded by his men and the spoils of war. All his gifts, all his intelligence, and he has no idea of the suffering he is about to endure, and just how difficult his homecoming will be.
***
Hello! And welcome to series 4 of Greeks and Geeks, the podcast which takes us on a persnickity but fun journey deep diving into the lore behind our favourite stories. I’m your host, Sabrina, a teacher, writer and myth nerd. And with this being the season 4 episode opening, I thought it would be best to discuss a topic which has taken the mythology world and the film nerd world by storm, that of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Odyssey. Today I’m going to go over my hopes for the movie, a few predictions and analyses of the information released so far, plus a few concerns I have.
I will state on the off that I am not a film buff. I’m coming at this from the angle of a mythology lover interested in a new adaptation of The Odyssey movie, not just focusing on the fact that it’s Christopher Nolan doing it.
In the final days of 2024, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey was announced to released in Summer of 2026. We had an immediate list of cast members but no roles attached to their names as of that point. People. Went. Nuts. Christopher Nolan is such a well loved director and The Odyssey is…well how can I adequately describe the Odyssey? It’s epic (heh) well yes it is. But people see this as a perfect mirroring of director and story. There were a few murmurings of discontent over the cast, but we’ll get to that later.
For now let’s discuss the director and my thoughts on Christopher Nolan taking on the Odyssey.
I have very much a love hate relationship with Christopher Nolan movies. I haven’t seen all of them, but there are some that I really enjoy such as Dunkirk, but also ones that fuel me with rage but I’m scared to admit this because I feel like you’re all going to be really mad at me.
(I didn’t care for The Dark Knight trilogy) OK LETS MOVE ON LALALA
But I recognise the pattern I have with liking and disliking Nolan films, and it’s adaptation. I think that Nolan works best when he has constraints with storytelling. Dunkirk and Oppenheimer are historical fictions and they’re definitely my favourites of his. When you’re retelling a story, it’s a lot trickier to go off on unnecessary tangents, which I feel like his stories can fall victim to at times, such as Tenant which I haven’t seen but listened to my husband (who normally loves) complain about. But Nolan is also WEIRD when it comes to storytelling, and some of his more abstract pieces, like the dream sequences in inception, are his best work too. So I’m actually really excited for him to tackle The Odyssey. Because the Odyssey is the perfect adaptation for him, in my opinion. It has a very clear, iconic plot to adapt but it has a lot of WEIRDNESS. The Odyssey is just so unbelievably strange in such a beautiful, mystical, scary and thrilling way. So I think it’s the best of both worlds for Nolan.
Now I do have one major concern with Nolan and that is a well documented criticism that his movies have- his depiction of women. A lot of his women characters are quite one dimensional and often only there to serve the male characters rather than being characters in their own right. This is a real concern for me because of the character of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. I really hope that she’s not simply portrayed as Odysseus’ long-suffering wife waiting for him to come home, and instead is written to be the intelligent Queen of Ithaca that she ought to be shown as. She is Odysseus’ partner both in love and also smarts. Let’s show her outsmarting the suitors, using every trick in her disposal to delay her choice in suitors and keeping Odysseus’ throne warm for him and their son Telemachus’ inheritance intact. It would be so easy to depict Penelope as this long-suffering damsel.
That being said, I think Nolan is also the perfect director to portray the questions the Odyssey leaves us with. I’m thinking of the end of Inception here, left on the unanswered question, as proof that he’s an expert when it comes to questions cinema-goers can debate over. Questions such as, when exactly did Penelope recognise her husband? If he’s able to depict Penelope as the nuanced, intelligent character she is, this could be up there as an iconic discussion for movie goers alike.
So yes whilst I have some concerns with Nolan, I also can’t deny that as cinema gets more generic and more frustrating, I can’t deny that Nolan one of the few directors at the moment with enough power in the industry to do this story and do it well. I know I’m not the only one seeing the current Hollywood output and just heaving a big sigh. It feels like so many studios are afraid of taking risks and making the same movies over and over again. Disney is throwing out generic slop, I’ve been burned out by Marvel for at least half a decade now. For me it’s the lack of sincerity in cinema, that kind of Whedon-esque “well that happened” kind of dialogue. I am just tired of it. I am craving genuine human emotion, sincerity and effort in my movies. With the box office hits of Barbie, Oppenheimer and Wicked Part 1, and the upcoming James Gunn’s Superman, I’m really hoping that Hollywood is learning this lesson.
But that’s enough about talking about Nolan. Let’s go into discussions over the cast.
***
At the time of recording this podcast, only one actor has been attached to a character and that is Matt Damon as Odysseus. Now I know Matt Damon is a bit of a meme at times, but I think he’s a good actor. I mean he played an excellent horse. But all jokes aside, he can be a good serious actor but also a charming one. I’m specifically thinking about The Martian. That performance alone, of a man stranded far away from home (further than even Odysseus ever got) and managing to keep up his spirits in spite of it all, bodes well for his depiction of Odysseus. Sometimes I feel that people have this impression of Greek Heroes that they’re all stoic and, for lack of a better phrase, Spartan. Perhaps it’s due to the popularity of movies like 300 which I should probably do an episode about in the future, but regardless, Odysseus wasn’t a 100% serious man. Odysseus stood out in a world of heroes for his skills of charm and rhetoric, for his intelligence. But he could also be cunning, vengeful and petty too. He was a polarising figure, even in the Iliad and Odyssey. He had enemies even in the Greek encampment and people found him difficult to trust. But the Greeks also relied on him, he was the ideas guy. He’s emotional and frequently cries throughout the Odyssey. I feel like Matt Damon could play that role quite well. Plus we know that Matt Damon has been in a couple of Nolan movies now, so I feel like Nolan now knows Damon enough to draw out a really good performance from him.
God I hope I don’t have to eat my words in 2026.
Aside from this a slew of actors have been announced without roles attached. I’m going to go a little bit different now and actually try to make predictions for who some of the actors are playing.
Most people think Tom Holland will play Odysseus’ son Telemachus. I’ve seen a lot of concern and doubt around this idea and I don’t think that’s totally fair. We all know Tom Holland best from his depiction of Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however he does have a long career behind him, being a child star, and has starred in historical dramas. What makes me think he might suit playing Telemachus is his pre-Spiderman role in the BBC series Wolf Hall, which is about the rise and fall of the complex Thomas Cromwell- Henry VIIIs right hand man. It’s a fantastic series by the way and has one of my favourite depictions of Henry VIII pre and post his head injury but that’s a tangent for another time. In the first series, a young Tom Holland plays Gregory Cromwell, the only son of Thomas Cromwell. So he does have experience playing a young man in the shadow of his hugely influential father, in a constantly politically precarious position. Just like Telemachus in the Odyssey. The huge difference being Thomas Cromwell was actively involved in Gregory’s life where Odysseus is absent from Telemachus’. Now I will say it has been 10 years since Tom Holland played Gregory Cromwell, and his acting credits have mainly been Spiderman related in those 10 years so I do understand the trepidation. I suppose I’m erring on the side of optimism.
Charlize Theron and Anne Hathaway are also attached to the project and I think both of these actresses could play Circe the witch or Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and Queen of Ithaca. Both of them have the acting chops to pull both roles off however I’m leaning towards Charlize Theron playing the role of Circe. Despite modern depictions, such as the most famous artworks of Circe and for more of that you can check out my Circe episode earlier on, you could also depict her with golden hair as she is the daughter of Helios, the sun god. We usually associate sunlight with golden hair. So that’s the more superficial point. I feel like based on her performance, she could pull of a malevolent witch who turns ally very well. Anne Hathaway I can really see channelling the softer vulnerable moments of Penelope yearning for her husband with the stoic Queen who has to face the insults of the suitors invading her home. I mean she is the Queen of Genovia after all, haha.
Lupita Nyong’o I believe could be the Goddess Athena, if this is an adaption with the Gods in it which we’ll get to later. She has such a range and presence as an actress, so I do feel that out of all the roles she could play, that would be a great role for her. She definitely has the ability to play all the female characters, except Nausicaa as she’s meant to be so much younger, however I would be a bit wary over casting the only black actress in the role of witch as I think that would have some…eh lets say problematic undertones to say the least. Especially a witch like Circe, who’s supposed to be wild and keep lions for pets, turns men into pigs etc. I think she would be fantastic at it though regardless, but goddess of wisdom feels like a good fit for her.
Zendaya, along with Tom Holland, is one of the younger members of this cast so I definitely don’t think she’d be believable as a wife whose husband has been missing for 20 years, or an immortal witch. That leads me to believe she could play the young princess Nausicaa. Nausicaa is a crucial role in the Odyssey, a smart yet kind princess who helps Odysseus when he’s at his absolute lowest. Youth and vulnerability whilst also being smart and “switch on” is something I feel like would be a good role for Zendaya based on the admittedly few roles I’ve seen her in.
The other cast members I wouldn’t be able to tell you at this point. It’s a lot easier to think about who the actresses might play since there are far fewer female characters in the Odyssey. But the male characters? I mean they could play suitors, Gods, or any member of Odysseus’ crew. However if I was going to pray for anything, John Leguizamo as Hermes I feel could be an absolute riot. But most likely he’s being serious John Leguizamo and is therefore probably one of the smarmier suitors.
Turning away from the actors and roles now, especially as new announcements could be made about that any day thus making this whole portion of my script obsolete, I would like to talk about the length of this movie.
Movies do seem to be on trends as being longer and longer. The recent Wicked adaptation comes to mind, where the first act of the musical was stretched into a three hour extravaganza. For those of you who’ve listened to my previous episodes of the Odyssey, you’ll know that the epic took three whole days to perform. I don’t even want to think about how many intermissions you’d need for that. Anyways, Wicked is a two hours and forty-five minutes long musical WITH a fifteen minute interval to boot! And the screen adaptation for just the first act was longer! Nolan isn’t often one for super-ultra long movies. His longest by far is actually his latest film Oppenheimer at 3 hours long. Is this going to be a trend? And can a story which takes three days to perform be told in a 3 hour film? Or will this adaptation of the Odyssey stretch into a two-parter. I do wonder just how far along they are in the script writing process. Like I said, I’m not really a film buff so I wouldn’t know this at all.
But it’s fun to speculate. If Nolan decided to split the Odyssey into two parts, like so many other of his predecessors, where would the split go? Narratively it might make sense to split it into the journey home, and the second film become about what Odysseus has to go through when he gets back to Ithaca. Although that could be a bit too similar to the recently released film called The Return starring Raph Fiennes as Odysseus which still hasn’t released in the UK and I want to see it so badly even though there are no gods in it!
Finally, I want to discuss the things which has had EVERYONE’s eyebrows raised, and has caused the most amount of concern in the mythology nerd camp…the recently released first look images.
(MUSIC)
I’ve put a link to the poster in the episode description but I’ll describe it to you now in case you’re driving or doing something else which means you can’t take a sneaky peek.
The image is of Matt Damon’s Odysseus. He is front and centre. His back is to the camera and his head is tilted to one side, so we see him in profile. This is actually quite a bit different to other movie posters set in ancient Rome or Ancient Greece, as wide of a net historically that is. But seriously look at posters of movies such as Gladiator, 300, Troy and The Return to just name a few. Many of these posters have the main characters, mostly male, in a fighting or defiant stance as a show of strength and power. The pose they have Odysseus doing here isn’t like that. His eyes are downcast, almost melancholy. Aside from the armour, which we’ll get to, he doesn’t look like he’s a powerful man ready for battle. He looks more cerebral than the other men, as if he’s planning something rather than ready to charge at the viewer and fight, which suits Odysseus’ character more. And am I over analysing a first look image to death? You betcha. Hey this podcast is a persnickity but fun journey remember?
The issues come in when we look at the armour itself. It’s quite historically inaccurate to the time in which the Trojan War is supposed to be set. The Trojan War, mythologically speaking, is said to have occurred in the Mycenean Age, similar to the Minoan’s who lived on Crete roughly around the same time, where you can still see the ruins of the palace of Knossos with the beautifully painted walls. So all of this was well before the classical period we traditionally associate with the term “ancient Greece” with all the white pillars and philosophy and what have you. This time was actually pretty well know to be bright and colourful. So seeing the dull colours of Odysseus’ incorrect armour is kind of disheartening.
Trawling on forums like reddit, which I love to do, I noticed a particular annoyance for the bracers and Odysseus’ plumed helmet, which we typically associate with Spartans from the classical age, again think about movies like 300. Bear in mind that the Battle of Thermopalae, which is what the movie 300 is based on, happened in the year 480BC and please bear in mind that 300 is also wildly inaccurate too but having that helmet in 300 (or the poster at least) is a darn sight more accurate that having it in The Odyssey. The Trojan War and the Odyssey are said to have happened about 600 years earlier than this. Doubt they’d be sharing the same fashion sense. Let’s put it like this. Let’s say six hundred years ago our armour stopped evolving in Europe. That would mean our military boys today would be walking in chainmail and Medieval knights armour. Wild eh?
The historical inaccuracies and some of the casting for this film already have Greek Myth lovers on edge and I can see why. We’ve recently had photographs of Tom Holland in a cloak that looks somewhat hobbit-ish and extras wearing armour that almost looked silver. Tom Holland has also been spotted on a boat which looks more reminiscent of a Viking boat as opposed to something like a Greek Trireme, which was a lot bigger and closer to the type of ships they would have been using in the Odyssey, However I do want to point out that it’s still the very early days of filming and we don’t know what things will look like in post-production. It might not get everything right, after all Nolan did write some historical inaccuracies into Oppenheimer and Dunkirk. By the way an excellent breakdown on the comparison between Dunkirk the movie and the actual event is by one of my favourite Youtuber’s History Buffs, so do check that episode out! I’ll link it for you. Anyways I’m willing to let go of things such as costuming or boat inaccuracies if the spirit of the Odyssey is present. And we won’t know that until 2026, or maybe until the trailers.
Which is a terribly long time to wait but hey, at least it’s nothing compared to Odysseus’ long journey home right?
Thank you for listening to the season 4 opener of Greeks and Geeks. I hope you had a lot of fun. If you want to keep up with all the latest news and you’re above the age of 21, you can join the Greeks and Geeks discord and just have a chat with a bunch of nerds! Alternatively you can follow me on my socials linked in this weeks podcast. I’m your host Sabrina and I’m Geeking Out! See you next time! Bye!
