Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Drops a Jaw-Dropping New Trailer, and the All-Star Cast Has Never Looked More Epic

A brand-new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ has officially arrived, and the internet is already losing its mind. Universal debuted the latest look at the Homer-inspired epic during Monday night’s episode of ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, where Nolan made a rare talk show appearance to introduce the footage. The film hits theaters and IMAX on July 17, and if this trailer is any indication, it is shaping up to be the cinematic event of the summer.

The new footage gives audiences their first real glimpse at Matt Damon’s Odysseus doing battle with the Cyclops, while Robert Pattinson’s villainous Antinous schemes to seize the throne of Ithaca. The scale on display is staggering, and fans who have been starved for promotional material since the December teaser are now fully on board. Aside from an extended scene screened at CinemaCon, the promotional campaign had been relatively quiet, making the new trailer all the more anticipated.

During his conversation with Colbert, Nolan explained his decision to follow ‘Oppenheimer’ with such a colossal undertaking, saying that adapting the Odyssey on a grand scale represented the kind of creative gap he actively seeks as a filmmaker. He also revealed that the film’s structure is nonlinear, opening in Ithaca with the story of Odysseus already in motion, with everyone in his kingdom aware that ten years have passed since the Trojan War ended and he has yet to return home.

The official synopsis describes the film as a story where fathers and sons, myth and legacy, are woven throughout Nolan’s new action epic. The cast is enormous and remarkably well-assembled. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, Tom Holland portrays Odysseus’s son Telemachus, Zendaya takes on the role of the goddess Athena, and Charlize Theron plays Circe, the goddess of witchcraft. Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, Mia Goth, Elliot Page, and John Leguizamo round out an already stacked ensemble.

The film was shot over a 91-day production using an entirely new IMAX technology, making it the first major studio feature to be captured entirely in the format. Filming spanned Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, Western Sahara, and Malta, as well as a studio soundstage in Los Angeles, with an estimated budget of around 250 million dollars. That level of ambition is visible in every frame of the new trailer, and Nolan’s longtime collaborators including cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and composer Ludwig Göransson are all back to bring it to life.

The summer release will also see ‘The Odyssey’ go head-to-head with ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ on July 17, echoing the legendary Barbenheimer clash of 2023. Whether that rivalry reaches the same cultural fever pitch remains to be seen, but the appetite for Nolan’s adaptation is clearly enormous. IMAX screenings were selling out a full year in advance, a remarkable feat that underscores just how much anticipation has been building around this project.

Let us know in the comments whether the new trailer for ‘The Odyssey’ has you ready to book your IMAX seats.