The ‘Odyssey’ Cast is Insanely Stacked

As with any Christopher Nolan project, details on The Odyssey‘s cast—and about every other aspect of the film—have so far been scant. We know this, though: In just shy of a calendar year, we’ll all be sitting in an IMAX theater somewhere in America, watching a 70mm print of Nolan’s followup to his world-bestriding, Best Picture-winning behemoth Oppenheimer—and right now, that’s almost all we can say for sure. And for some people, just knowing it’s Nolan doing The Odyssey was clearly more than enough of a sales pitch; tickets for opening weekend went on sale this morning (for a movie that, to reiterate, doesn’t come out until July 2026 and is reportedly still shooting) and early IMAX screenings appear to already be mostly sold out.

As film nerds around the world shift into Odyssey mode twelve months in advance, let’s briefly go over what information we actually currently have on the film, from the actors confirmed to be part of The Odyssey‘s cast to the ways in which the movie might deviate from its hallowed source material.

What is The Odyssey About?

After eight months of post-Oscar rumors flying concerning what Nolan’s next project might be (Spies! Vampires! Helicopter cops!), The Odyssey was announced in late December 2024. From there the production picked up steam rapidly. The Odyssey‘s cast was announced in spurts throughout the spring, and members of that massive all-star ensemble began flying out to shoot on location in Morocco, Sicily, Ireland and Scotland.

The film is obviously an adaptation of Homer’s classics-major classic, in which Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, tries to make his way home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus after the Trojan War in 8th century BCE. The Odyssey has been mounted many times on the large and small screen, faithfully and playfully, as an Armand Assante-starring Hallmark miniseries, and by everyone from Walter Hill in the ’70s (as The Warriors, with Manhattan gangs instead of Greek soldiers) to the Coen Brothers in the 2000s (with O Brother, Where Art Thou?).

Nolan has some experience with adaptations—both with his Dark Knight trilogy and Oppenheimer, a faithful take on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s book American Prometheus—but has generally stuck to telling original stories, which makes taking on one of the most widely-read and foundational narratives in human history a somewhat surprising left turn from a career master of subverting expectation. Unless it isn’t.

What Does the Odyssey Poster (Maybe) Tell Us About Nolan’s Plans?

Universal Pictures/Everett Collection