Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026)
The seat is shaking. This is the event.
The Odyssey works as pure spectacle, so make it enormous and let awe carry the myth.
You want the event: the biggest possible version, in the biggest possible room, seats shaking.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: the mythic scale, the monsters, the gods, the whole journey.
Changes: the medium into full IMAX spectacle, with practical effects, a movie-star ensemble, and more room for Penelope and Telemachus than the poem gives them.
Keeps the mythic scale, the monsters, the gods, and the whole journey. Changes the medium into full IMAX spectacle, with practical effects and a movie-star ensemble, and gives Penelope and Telemachus more room than the poem's structure does.
Whose story is it?
Odysseus’s, at epic scale, though Penelope and Telemachus get real screen time.
The feminism angle: Hathaway's Penelope gets more screen time and agency than the poem gives her. How far that goes is one of the film's quieter arguments.
How much time does it ask?
173 min. The first feature shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film.
The bow-string draw in full-frame IMAX, Damon’s Odysseus against the wine-dark sea.
Where to find it
Pairs well with: The Emily Wilson Translation (2017), if you want a chaser in another medium.
Common questions
Who plays Odysseus in the 2026 movie?
Matt Damon. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, Tom Holland plays Telemachus, Zendaya plays Athena, Samantha Morton plays Circe, Charlize Theron plays Calypso, and Robert Pattinson plays Antinous.
How long is Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey?
173 minutes, just under three hours. It was the first feature shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film cameras, which is why the IMAX release is the one worth traveling for.
Do I need to read the Odyssey before seeing the movie?
No. The film tells the whole journey on its own. Reading a translation afterward is the better order anyway, since you'll know which scenes to argue with.
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More ways home: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) · The Return (2024) · The Odyssey — NBC Miniseries (1997)