Movies and Shows About Troy to Watch After ‘The Odyssey’

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey‘ has finally arrived, sweeping audiences into Homer’s ancient world of gods, sea monsters, and one very long journey home. The film is Nolan’s screen adaptation of the epic poem attributed to Homer, released on July 17, 2026. It follows Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he embarks on a perilous journey home after the Trojan War, crossing the Mediterranean while battling the elements and an array of deadly obstacles and mythical creatures.

If you walked out of the theater craving more Troy, you are far from alone. Between the war that started it all and the long road home, here are twelve movies and shows worth adding to your watchlist.

‘Troy’ (2004)

‘Troy’ remains the gold standard for big screen Trojan War spectacle. Wolfgang Petersen’s direction showcases spectacular battle scenes and intricate political intrigue while capturing the essence of the ancient myth with real cinematic flair. Set in 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze Age, the story follows Paris convincing Helen, queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus and sail with him back to Troy. Brad Pitt underwent extensive physical training to portray Achilles, and the film was shot in Malta and Mexico to capture the ancient Mediterranean feel.

‘Helen of Troy’ (1956)

Long before more recent adaptations, Rossana Podesta took on the title role in this classic. Directed by Robert Wise and based on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the film starred Podesta as Helen, Jacques Sernas as Paris, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Priam, and Torin Thatcher as Ulysses. Made entirely in Italy and shot in CinemaScope and WarnerColor, it also featured a young Brigitte Bardot in her first role outside France, playing Helen’s handmaiden Andraste.

‘Ulysses’ (1954)

This lavish Italian production tackles the homecoming half of the myth well before Nolan ever touched it. The film stars Kirk Douglas in the title role, Silvana Mangano in a dual role as Penelope and Circe, and Anthony Quinn as Antinous. Ulysses, king of Ithaca, has been away fighting the war in Troy for ten years, and his wife Penelope is beset by boorish suitors camped out in their courtyard, entreating her to remarry while planning to divide his fortune among themselves.

‘Jason and the Argonauts’ (1963)

Not strictly about the Trojan War, but steeped in the same mythological universe that shapes ‘The Odyssey’. The film sees Pelias try to prevent Jason from claiming the throne of Thessaly by sending him on a dangerous quest to find the fabled Golden Fleece, with Jason and his crew sailing for Colchis in the ship Argo. Special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen created impressive stop motion animations for the film, including the seven headed Hydra and the bronze giant Talos.

‘Electra’ (1962)

The first entry in director Michael Cacoyannis’s Greek tragedy trilogy picks up in the aftermath of the war. King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus after he returns from the Trojan War, and their daughter Electra decides to take revenge, plotting against her mother with her brother Orestes. Irene Papas’s performance in the title role garnered Cacoyannis his first international success and an award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.

‘The Trojan Women’ (1971)

Cacoyannis returned to this world with a star studded English language follow up. In the aftermath of the Trojan War, Queen Hecuba takes stock of the defeated kingdom while her son’s widow Andromache is left to raise their child alone, Cassandra fears being enslaved by her Greek masters, and Helen of Troy risks being executed. The film starred Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold, and Irene Papas, and was made with minimal changes to Edith Hamilton’s translation of Euripides’ original play.

‘Iphigenia’ (1977)

The third film in Cacoyannis’s trilogy actually rewinds to before the war begins. After the elopement of Paris and Helen, the Achaean forces prepare for war and gather their fleet at Aulis, but an inexplicable lack of wind forces Agamemnon to confront a prophecy that he must sacrifice his own daughter to sail to Troy. Kostas Kazakos, Irene Papas, and Tatiana Papamoschou play Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Iphigenia as flesh and blood characters buffeted by fate rather than mythological icons.

‘The Odyssey’ (1997)

This NBC miniseries gave Homer’s second epic a full budget treatment decades before Nolan’s version. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, the miniseries aired in two parts on NBC in May 1997 and starred Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Isabella Rossellini, Bernadette Peters, and Christopher Lee. Odysseus is called to service in the Trojan War after the birth of his son Telemachus, and the war lasts ten years before the Greeks use a giant horse to sneak inside and destroy the city.

‘Helen of Troy’ (2003)

This USA Network miniseries leans harder into romance than most adaptations. Although married to Menelaus, king of Sparta, Helen falls madly in love with Paris, a handsome Trojan prince, and the lovers flee together to Troy, where Paris’s father King Priam offers them asylum. The cast includes Sienna Guillory as Helen, Matthew Marsden as Paris, John Rhys-Davies as Priam, and Rufus Sewell as Agamemnon.

‘Troy: Fall of a City’ (2018)

This BBC and Netflix co-production takes a slower, more character driven approach than the 2004 film. The series tells the story of the ten year war between Troy and Sparta after Paris and Helen fall in love and leave Sparta together, told largely from the perspective of the Trojan royal family. Louis Hunter stars as Paris, Bella Dayne as Helen, and David Gyasi as Achilles across the show’s eight episode run.

‘Clash of the Titans’ (2010)

A looser dip into the same Greek mythological world that surrounds the Trojan saga. The film follows Perseus, raised by a fisherman after his mortal family is destroyed by Hades, as he is brought before King Kepheus and Queen Cassiopeia and eventually tasked with stopping the Kraken. Sam Worthington stars as Perseus alongside Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades.

‘The Return’ (2024)

If ‘The Odyssey’ left you wanting a quieter take on Odysseus’s homecoming, this is essential viewing. The drama, directed by Uberto Pasolini and starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, retells the second half of Homer’s Odyssey and marked the first time the two actors worked together since ‘The English Patient’. Odysseus washes up on the shores of Ithaca twenty years after leaving for Troy, haggard and unrecognizable, to find his wife Penelope hounded by suitors and his son Telemachus facing danger from men who see him as an obstacle.

Twelve very different takes on the same handful of characters, and somehow none of them tell quite the same story twice. Which of these Trojan War adaptations do you think stands up best against Nolan’s new epic?