Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: Everything We Know So Far

What do you do when you’ve been to the vast reaches of space, reversed the temporal flow, ventured into the dreamscape – and, most importantly, swept the Oscars? With a three-hour, doom-laden, politically-driven historical drama, no less? In the wake of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan could do basically anything. His choice: go full Homer (no, not ‘The Simpsons Movie 2’) with an adaptation of epic Greek poem The Odyssey. It should add a new quiver to the legendary director’s bow – his first swords-and-sandals epic, possibly his first fantastical film, and one that brings him a new leading man.

With pre-production rapidly ramping up on Nolan’s next movie, here’s what we know so far:

Tom Holland is said to be the lead

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Tom Holland on our screens – following Uncharted and Apple TV drama The Crowded Room, he’s been treading the boards on the West End in Romeo & Juliet. But ahead of his return to Spider-Man, Holland will be armouring up for Nolan’s film – and word has it, he’s the lead. “When the opportunity came in, it was the phone call of a lifetime,” he told Good Morning America about working with the director. “It was reminiscent of getting the call about Spider-Man 10 years ago. It’s an amazing thing for me. I’m super proud and I’m really, really excited.”

Holland being the lead doesn’t necessarily pin down exactly who he’s playing. If Nolan is aiming for a somewhat faithful adaptation of Homer’s poem, the central figure is Odysseus, aka Ulysses – journeying home from Troy to Ithaca over the course of 10 years, battling all kinds of mythical beasts on the way. That could be the Holland role – or perhaps he’ll be Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, with the story largely told from his perspective. More as we have it.

The rest of the cast is stacked

Thought the Oppenheimer ensemble (comprising every single man in Hollywood) was impressive? Nolan’s next roster of actors is similarly stuffed with star power – while Holland has emerged as the lead, he’s part of a gigantic constellation. His Spider-Man co-star (and life partner) Zendaya is in the mix; it’s an Interstellar reunion with Matt Damon (who has also been theorised to play Odysseus, either as an aged-up Holland, or as father to Holland’s Telemachus) and Anne Hathaway; it’s another Tenet team-up for Robert Pattinson; Oppenheimer’s Benny Safdie is in the ensemble; plus there are Nolan newcomers Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, and Charlize Theron. Expect more names to join the list the closer we get to production.

It’s a ‘mythic action epic’

Quite what Nolan’s take on The Odyssey will look like remains to be seen – but in Universal’s social posts confirming the film as his next project, the film was described as “a mythic action epic”. Nolan has often veered away from the fantastical, or at least grounded it in something real-world, whether that’s the Tesla cloning machine from The Prestige, or his conception of the entire Batman mythos in The Dark Knight Trilogy. But The Odyssey is an inherently fantastical text – with a Cyclops, a trip to the underworld, six-headed sea monsters, seductive sirens, giants and more. As a result, we might see Nolan finally embrace high fantasy – unless, that is, he chooses to make his Odyssey a little less, well, odd.

It’ll be another IMAX blowout

You know the score by now: a Nolan movie means an IMAX event. He’s long loved the format, and innovated with it too – pioneering black-and-white IMAX film for Oppenheimer, where he used the almost-square frame to capture gigantic facial close-ups. And it sounds like he’ll be pushing the filmic format even further in The Odyssey – we’re promised it’ll be “using brand new IMAX film technology”, though exactly what is yet unclear. Are we talking IMAX fisheye-lens cyclops vision? We can dream.

His regular collaborators are expected to return

The details of Nolan’s production crew on The Odyssey aren’t yet officially confirmed – but early word has it that some of his key creatives are venturing to Ancient Greece with him. Most notably, there’s cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, with whom Nolan shot Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet and Oppenheimer; and composer Ludwig Göransson, who scored Tenet and Oppenheimer, the latter to Oscar- and BAFTA-winning effect. Oh, and of course, producer Emma Thomas – Nolan’s wife – will be on board too.

It’s shooting on ‘Goat Island’

Most would consider Christopher Nolan to be ‘the GOAT’ – the Greatest Of All Time – making anywhere he steps foot some kind of ‘GOAT island’. But, with The Odyssey, he’s making it official. Universal has promised that the film will be “shot across the world”, with locations expected to include Morocco and the UK. Adding to that list is the Sicilian landmass Favignana, aka ‘Goat island’ – of particular significance because it’s believed to be an exact location that Homer designated as a landing point of Odysseus on his journey. That’s the kind of attention to detail that makes a Nolan movie – just another reason he’s the GOAT. We’re bleating with excitement.

It’s out in a year and a half

Thankfully, Nolan’s drive for authenticity doesn’t extend to a 10-year production journey for Odysseus’ story. The Odyssey is really not that far away – confirmed to hit cinemas on 17 July, 2026, with cameras rolling from the early months of 2025. Bring on Nolan’s next epic.