The first wave of images from Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has landed. Anne Hathaway smolders as Penelope, Tom Holland steps into the restless uncertainty of Telemachus, and Mia Goth brings an ambiguous glow to Melantho. Joining them are three striking new additions: Robert Pattinson as a razor-edged Antinous, John Leguizamo nearly unrecognizable as the loyal Eumaeus, and Zendaya as Athena. And this is not the end of the list, surrounding them is a constellation of Hollywood heavyweights: Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, Elliot Page, and others who round out a cast that feels both godlike and deeply human.
At the center is Damon’s Odysseus: king, soldier, wanderer, a man stretched thin across decades of longing and trial. Holland’s Telemachus, once a child at the outbreak of the Trojan War, now finds himself navigating both inheritance and uncertainty. Hathaway returns to Nolan’s universe as Penelope, the ultimate study in endurance,unraveling and re-weaving her own survival.
Zendaya’s Athena, shape-shifting mentor; Leguizamo’s steadfast Eumaeus, Bernthal’s Menelaus, still surrounded by the aftershocks of Troy. Even the supporting cast, Himesh Patel and Will Yun Lee among Odysseus’s doomed crew, adds texture to a world where heroism is never clean.
Empire magazine had the privilege to unveil the new stills, and they hint at something monumental. Nolan isn’t just adapting Homer; he’s working into transforming an epic tale in something no one has ever seen before. The frames blend raw realism with mythological surrealism, salt bitten landscapes, looming gods, and warriors who look carved from the earth they fight for.
Set for release on July 17, 2026, the film already radiates an epic tone: Penelope’s icy vigilance as suitors circle, Melantho’s unsettling ambiguity, Telemachus rising into destiny. Backed by a colossal $250 million budget and shot entirely on 70mm IMAX under the meticulous eye of cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, The Odyssey promises a scale even Nolan hasn’t attempted before. Empire’s cover teases something more: a Trojan horse looming in the background, an indication the film might weave in elements of The Iliad, expanding the narrative into a broader tapestry of war.
Rumors also whisper of a six-minute prologue attached to Avatar: Fire and Ash, echoing Nolan’s tradition of dropping early glimpses in a theatrical fashion. After 91 days of shooting across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, and Los Angeles, and almost 610,000 meters of film, The Odyssey is nearly ready for its first full reveal.
If the early images are any indication, The Odyssey isn’t merely retelling a classic. It’s reimagining myth as kinetic cinema, alive, volatile, and absolutely colossal.
