Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey: Everything you need to know
The lid has been lifted on the next film of one of the most beloved living directors
Few directors have as solid a track record as Christopher Nolan. Outside the messy mixed bag that was Tenet, the Hollywood icon has made banger after banger. And now we know a whole lot about his next movie, The Odyssey.
It’s not out until 2026, meaning — delays aside — there will be a reasonable three-year gap between Oppenheimer and this new epic.
Our first impression is this is nothing like what we expected from earlier rumours. We’d heard Nolan’s next movie might be a horror film, possibly even a 1920s vampire flick. It most certainly is not that, though.
Here’s everything we know about Christopher Nolan’s next movie so far.
It’s called The Odyssey
Nolan’s next project is The Odyssey. And, yes, it’s that Odyssey. This is an adaptation of Homer’s 12,000-odd-line epic poem from ancient Greece.
It’s a classic of old myth that tells the story of Odysseus's voyage home after the Trojan War. It follows the events of the Illiad, another huge epic poem, which is set during that war. This is no jaunt, though. It spans continents, takes years, and sees Odysseus face all sorts of foes and challenges.
Universal calls it "a mythic action epic shot across the world."
It’s going to be shown (and shot) in IMAX
No surprise here. Christopher Nolan is once again making an IMAX-ready film. The movie will be shot, at least in part, using new IMAX camera tech too.
These use 70mm film, as usual, but the new cameras are smaller and lighter than the older generation models. This could let Nolan employ them for more of the film’s scenes. Nolan has plenty of experience with the medium, having used 70mm IMAX film for parts of The Dark Knight movies, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet and 2023’s Oppenheimer.
Around 75 minutes of Oppenheimer's runtime was shot in IMAX, including the striking outdoor scenes at the Los Alamos lab.
The Odyssey may be Nolan’s most expensive movie yet
According to industry leaker and commentator Jeff Sneider, The Odyssey will be Christopher Nolan’s most expensive film ever. But when you look at the figures for his recent movies, and consider what inflation has done to production costs anyway, that’s no great surprise.
Oppenheimer was made for "just" $100 million, and made a whopping $975 million off it. Nolan’s priciest film to date is The Dark Knight Rises, made for $250 million and released all the way back in 2012.
Our most recent reference on the costs of a good old swords and sandals romp is Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, which had a production budget of $310 million. Big money.
The cast is star-studded
Who would want to work on a Christopher Nolan movie? Most of Hollywood, it seems.
While we haven’t been told their roles yet, we do know The Odyssey is set to star Tom Holland, Zendaya, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson and Charlize Theron.
The obvious leap to make is Odysseus may be played by either Pattinson or Holland. One count against Holland is Telemachus is one of the key characters of the story, and is Odysseus’s son. Even if he will be 30 by the time the movie comes out, is the still-youthful Tom Holland really in his dad era?
Other characters you can speculate upon include Odysseus’s wife Penelope, Zeus, Poseidon, Circe and Athena. Place your bets.
It is due to reach cinemas in Summer 2026
There’s clearly a lot of confidence behind this project, given the amount of detail we now have, because it’s not due to hit cinemas for quite a long old time.
The Odyssey has an official release date of July 17 2026. We'll be keeping our eyes out for more news on this Nolan epic.
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