‘The Odyssey’ trailer: Nolan brings a grounded tone to Homer’s epic

Christopher Nolan stepping into the world of ancient myth was always going to draw attention, but the first trailer for his take on Homer’s epic, ‘The Odyssey’, has sparked a level of excitement few films manage this early.

The trailer begins after the Trojan War has ended. There is no sense of triumph, only weariness. Troy has fallen, but Odysseus and his men are far from home. Matt Damon plays Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, leading his soldiers away from the ruins with one simple goal: to return to their families. The mood is heavy and grounded, setting up the journey not as an adventure, but as a long and uncertain struggle.

Instead of rushing into spectacle, the trailer takes its time. Wide shots of open seas, distant shores, and quiet moments of tension dominate the footage. There are barely any clear glimpses of the mythical dangers that await Odysseus, even though Homer’s poem, believed to have been written around the eighth century BCE, is filled with them. The story famously includes encounters with Polyphemus the Cyclops, the Sirens, the witch goddess Circe, and the nymph Calypso. By holding these back, the trailer suggests that Nolan is more interested in the emotional cost of the journey than in visual excess.

Matt Damon’s Odysseus comes across as a man shaped by war, carrying responsibility rather than glory. Around him is a large and varied cast that hints at the scale of the story. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, and Corey Hawkins. It is the kind of ensemble that suggests a narrative spread across many lands and encounters.

‘The Odyssey’ is Nolan’s first film after ‘Oppenheimer’, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director. That film showed his interest in inner conflict and moral weight, and the same sensibility seems to carry over here. From the trailer alone, ‘The Odyssey’ looks less like a heroic fantasy and more like a story about survival, memory, and the quiet hope of finding one’s way back home.