Homer's epic poem the Odyssey was written in Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC. In 2026, Christopher Nolan brought out his action film The Odyssey, adapted from the poem. Critics have noted multiple differences between the versions. Some have questioned whether Nolan accurately depicts Mycenaean Greece; others have argued that Homer's epic was simply a myth, and others again have stated that while the Odyssey is a story, it was rooted in history. The film has been described as both the "most anticipated" and the "most contested" of 2026.
The process of adapting an ancient book-length poem to a single 172-minute film makes changes and omissions inevitable. Nolan cut some plot elements and characters, including several gods, while attempting to preserve an "appropriate tone". He decided to portray Odysseus as a veteran tired of war and haunted by slaughter. That offers a modern explanation for the length of Odysseus's homecoming—that he was avoiding going home. The historian Andrew E. Larsen admired the film's look, but considered the Greek costumes unhistorically drab, and found Agamemnon's armour silly. The classicist Armand D'Angour liked the use of an ancient musical instrument, the aulos. Others critiqued the armour and ship designs. Some critics argued that the adaptation reshaped the poem's ancient moral framework to align with modern attitudes. The casting of the Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy was criticised by conservative American commentators as blackwashing. Several commentators called this criticism racist. Larsen commented that Greek literature accepted the princess Andromeda — sometimes described as dark-skinned — as extremely beautiful.
The English classicist Mary Beard criticised the film as "an Odyssey without the sex" or the humour of the original. She called the character dynamics "feebly handled", and said that the adaptation failed to capture the nuances of Homer's text. Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation inspired Nolan, called the result a simple action film lacking "psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth", abysmally written, and with "nothing convincing to say" about the Odyssey's major themes.
Others argued that Nolan's film succeeds on its own terms, creating a popular film matching the expectations of a modern audience. The British critic Peter Bradshaw praised the film's ambition and scope, offering a vision of grim resolution in the face of loss. Guy Lodge of Variety described it as a "vast, thrilling, slightly aloof epic", offering the audience so much that the chilliness works.
Context
Homer's epic poem the Odyssey is one of the oldest surviving works of literature, written in Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC. In 2026, Christopher Nolan brought out his action film The Odyssey, adapted from Homer's poem. Scholars and critics have noted multiple differences between Nolan's and Homer's versions. Some have questioned whether Nolan accurately depicts Mycenaean Greece; others have argued that Homer's epic was simply a myth, while others again have stated that while the Odyssey is a story, it was rooted in history. The film has been described as both the "most anticipated" and the "most contested" of 2026.
Adaptation and omission
The process of adapting an ancient book-length poem (the audiobook is over 10 hours long) to a single 172-minute film suitable for a modern audience means that changes and omissions are inevitable. Among the omissions are several of the gods; princess Nausicaa and the Phaeacians; Odysseus talking to the Cyclops and cunningly calling himself 'Nobody'; Telemachus's hanging of the disloyal women; and Penelope's testing of the returning Odysseus, getting him to describe their marital bed (he had made it of olive wood). Chris Montanelli, on Scraps from the Loft, writes that the absence of the gods who provide Homer's plot line "carries a precise narrative cost", namely that "the wanderings [of Odysseus] lose their logic of [divine] persecution and become a string of accidents." A deeper cost, Montanelli argues, is that the gods' absence destroys the story's distance in time: instead, The Odyssey makes classical antiquity "psychologically our contemporary."
Nolan merged some plot elements and dropped some characters, including several of the gods, while attempting to preserve an "appropriate tone". A major change is Nolan's decision to portray Odysseus as a veteran tired of war and haunted by the slaughter that his Trojan Horse caused. That mental anguish offers viewers a modern explanation for the length of Odysseus's homecoming, namely that he was avoiding going home. Erica Gonzales suggests in Elle magazine that this was "inspired by the opening line of the classicist Emily Wilson's 2017 translation of The Odyssey, which Nolan himself cited as an influence: 'Tell me about a complicated man.'"
Aspects of the film
Historical appropriateness
The historian Andrew E. Larsen wrote that he had diverse reactions to the film's elements. He found the film "visually striking", particularly liking the Trojan Horse, while the use of the Minoan throne from Knossos for the Ithaca throne was a guess, but "a really nice touch". He noted that Odysseus's ship is a replica Viking longship, not a Mycenean vessel, but commented that it was a reasonable match with what little is known of such ships. On the other hand, he considered the Greek costumes excessively drab, "generally unlike what Greeks actually wore." He found Agamemnon's armour especially silly, resembling a Batman cosplay.
The classicist Armand D'Angour wrote that the film's music appropriately includes the sound of an ancient musical instrument, the double pipes of the aulos, woven into the otherwise "heroic and percussive" non-diegetic background score.
Some Greek publications, historians, and other commenters criticised the filmmakers for not casting any Greek or Greek-American actors, as well as criticizing the armour and ship designs. Some commentators called these changes "unrealistic" for the period depicted and a misrepresentation of ancient Greek history, which could "break the immersion" and "detract from important aspects of the story". Nolan acknowledged concerns about the historical accuracy, comparing his approach to that of his 2014 film Interstellar as an exploration of "what is the best speculation and how can I use that to create a world?" /Film Jeremy Mathai declared that "practically every major criticism of The Odyssey is selective and hypocritical to the extreme". John Semley at Wired characterised the controversies as part of a broader "culture war" response to diverse casting, similar to reactions to Wilson's translation of the Odyssey.
Moral framework
Some critics argued that the adaptation reshaped the poem's ancient moral framework to align with modern attitudes. In The New Yorker, Richard Brody wrote that its guilt-ridden Odysseus gave the story a "readily digestible modernity" and sought to "redeem Odysseus for modern times"; he contrasted this portrayal with the Cicones episode in Book 9, in which Odysseus matter-of-factly recounts sacking a town, killing its men, and dividing the captured women and wealth among his crews. Montanelli remarks the film's chasteness: Circe and Calypso barely hint at sex with Odysseus, and with that loss "goes half the character's ambiguity — the husband jealous of another's fidelity and generous with his own."
The British classicist Emily Hauser argued in The Guardian that Homer's Odysseus is "not a straightforwardly moral modern leader", noting that the film omits the act of hubris that brings Poseidon's curse, arms the suitors whom Odysseus kills, alters the execution of the enslaved women, and adds a remorseful final journey absent from the poem.
Casting choices
The casting of the Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, who had been described as the most beautiful woman in the world, was criticised by conservative American commentators, such as Matt Walsh and Elon Musk, as blackwashing. Several commentators called this criticism racist, comparing it to similar casting criticisms of the 2023 docudrama Queen Cleopatra and that same year's Disney film The Little Mermaid. Referencing Greek professor Dimitris Liantinis, Philip Chrysopoulos of the Greek Reporter acknowledged that Homer described Helen as pale or "white-armed" but noted that he did not describe her in detail, allowing everyone to imagine her for themselves. Larsen commented that Greeks of the time "generally weren't light-skinned", and that the princess Andromeda (who in some tellings of the myths was described as dark-skinned) was described as extremely beautiful. Salon C. K. Smith opined that the backlash over the supposed inaccuracy of her depiction was "selective" and more about social issues over minority representation than about fidelity to the source material. Meanwhile, Nolan defended Nyong'o's casting, saying he believed the actress conveyed the "strength and the poise" he found essential for the role. Nyong'o opted to emphasise who Helen was beyond her appearance, stating, "You can't perform beauty". She added that the cast was meant to be "representative of the world" while "occupying the epic narrative of our time". Writing for The Guardian, Greek film critic Chris Cotonou called this an "honourable intention", but argued that it made the absence of Greek actors "even more glaring", as they are the people "most authentically connected to the source".
Costumes and ships
Agamemnon's thick dark armour was criticised as unhistorical and likened to the contemporary Batsuit worn by Bruce Wayne / Batman in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012). Military historian Bret Devereaux said that iron armour did not exist in Greece during the late Bronze Age, the commonly believed setting of the Odyssey. However, he said that Homeric characters had been "depicted in anachronistic armour since antiquity" and were portrayed as contemporary warriors in the late Archaic or Classical periods. He said the armour was "vaguely Greek-looking" but did not represent any specific type of armour. Caleb Howells at the Greek Reporter acknowledged that, while the armour designs were reminiscent of the Archaic-era armour described by Homer, they still had some "prominent inaccuracies". The design and dark colour of the galleys were noted for more closely resembling Viking longships rather than the Ancient Greek ships used during the Trojan War. Conversely, the popular historian Tom Holland (unrelated to the actor) said that there was no historically accurate interpretation of Odysseus because he is a mythical figure, opining that an "impressionist" interpretation of ancient history was an improvement over a "painstaking attempt to get every historical detail right, because it's impossible". Chris Garlick, manager at period costume company Cosprop, said "We have the expertise to do things accurately, but we are aware that directors and producers want to push things in a slightly different direction".
Linguistic register