All the Movies About Odysseus You Need to Watch, Including Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’

Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey‘ is finally hitting theaters, and it has fans buzzing about every version of Homer’s wandering king that came before it. Odysseus has proven to be one of literature’s most durable heroes, and Hollywood keeps finding new ways to send him sailing home.

From black and white spectacle to prestige miniseries to this year’s IMAX epic, the character has been reimagined by different generations, different genres, and wildly different budgets. Here’s a full rundown of the Odysseus movies worth knowing before you head to the theater.

A Quick List of Odysseus Movies in Order

Before diving into the details, here’s the complete lineup of films and screen adaptations centered on Odysseus and his journey.

• ‘Ulysses’ (1954)
• ‘The Odyssey’ (1997 miniseries)
• ‘Troy’ (2004)
• ‘The Return’ (2024)
• ‘The Odyssey’ (2026)

‘Ulysses’ (1954)

Long before anyone thought of casting Matt Damon, Kirk Douglas took on the role of the wandering king in this Italian production directed by Mario Camerini. The film is an international co-production between Italy, France, and the United States, and it premiered in Italy on October 6, 1954, before Paramount Pictures released it in the United States the following year. Douglas starred opposite Silvana Mangano, who took on the demanding dual role of both Penelope and Circe, while Anthony Quinn played the villainous suitor Antinous.

The story compresses much of Homer’s original text into a handful of key encounters. The film boils down the various episodes into three main encounters, the escape from the cyclops Polyphemus, the temptation of the sirens, and the seduction by Circe, along with a framing story involving an amnesiac Odysseus among the Phaeacians. The production notably skipped the character of Telemachus searching for his father, streamlining the tale for a mid century movie audience.

Reception at the time was mixed but the film still made a splash commercially. In Italy it became the highest grossing film of the 1954 to 1955 cinema season, pulling in 1.8 billion lire, even though critics were lukewarm on the final product. Decades later it’s remembered as the film that essentially launched Italy’s sword and sandal genre, with cinematographer Mario Bava cutting his teeth on the effects work.

‘The Odyssey’ (1997)

Between the sword and sandal era and Nolan’s IMAX spectacle sits a lesser discussed but well regarded television take on the material. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, this two-part production starred Armand Assante as Odysseus and was filmed across Malta, Turkey, and other Mediterranean locations, airing in two parts in May 1997. The supporting cast leaned heavily on recognizable names, including Greta Scacchi, Geraldine Chaplin, Christopher Lee, Bernadette Peters, Eric Roberts, Isabella Rossellini, and Vanessa Williams.

Unlike most film versions, this miniseries takes a chronological approach rather than starting in the middle of the action. The story begins with Odysseus’s departure from Ithaca and even folds in elements of the Trojan War before launching into the events of the Odyssey itself, with the Cyclops encounter arriving early and Telemachus’s journey to Pylos and Sparta appearing near the end.

The extended two part format gave Konchalovsky room that a two hour film simply doesn’t have, letting the production dwell on side characters and side quests that other adaptations tend to cut. It went on to win an Emmy for its efforts, and it remains one of the more complete tellings of Homer’s poem ever put on screen, even if its television roots keep it a step removed from the theatrical Odysseus movies surrounding it.

‘Troy’ (2004)

Wolfgang Petersen’s sprawling war epic isn’t a direct adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, but it’s impossible to leave out of the conversation since it dramatizes the very event that sets Odysseus’s journey in motion. The film centers on Brad Pitt’s Achilles and the siege of Troy, with Sean Bean taking on the role of Odysseus as one of the Greek commanders scheming his way toward victory.

The film leans into the same Trojan Horse sequence that effectively serves as the starting point for Homer’s Odyssey, giving audiences a sense of the cunning and strategic mind that defines Odysseus before his ten year voyage home even begins. It’s often grouped with the other Odysseus adaptations as a kind of unofficial prequel, since it fills in the war that leaves him and his men stranded at sea for a decade.

Because ‘Troy’ is fundamentally an Iliad story rather than an Odyssey one, its version of Odysseus is a supporting player rather than the central hero. Still, for fans building out a complete Odysseus watchlist, it offers useful context for the war he’s desperately trying to escape in every other film on this list.

‘The Return’ (2024)

Twenty years after the Konchalovsky miniseries, Ralph Fiennes stepped into the sandals of the Greek king for a much smaller, more intimate take on the story. Directed by Uberto Pasolini, ‘The Return’ focuses exclusively on the final act of Homer’s epic. The film is a retelling of the second half of Homer’s Odyssey, adapted by Edward Bond, John Collee, and Pasolini, and it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2024, before a theatrical release that December through Bleecker Street.

Juliette Binoche co-starred as Penelope, marking a reunion between the two actors. The film marks the third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have appeared together, following their earlier work on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the Oscar winning The English Patient. Fiennes reportedly pushed Pasolini for years to take on directing duties after the two first discussed the project over a decade earlier.

Unlike the mythology heavy adaptations that came before and after it, ‘The Return’ deliberately strips out the gods, monsters, and magic. There are no sirens to resist, no cyclops to blind, and no transformations into pigs at the hands of Circe, allowing the film to ground the story in a more realistic, psychologically driven setting. Critics were largely won over by the emotional weight the two leads brought to the material, with the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes noting that the film removes the mythology from Odysseus’ homecoming along with some of the fun, but that Fiennes and Binoche’s performances keep the drama absorbing.

‘The Odyssey’ (2026)

Now comes the big one. Christopher Nolan’s take on ‘The Odyssey’ stars Matt Damon as the Greek king of Ithaca, with an ensemble cast that reads like a who’s who of contemporary Hollywood. The film chronicles Odysseus’ long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War and his encounters with mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife Penelope, portrayed by Anne Hathaway, with an ensemble that includes Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron.

The scale of the production sets it apart from every prior adaptation. With an estimated budget of 250 million dollars, it ranks among the most expensive films of Nolan’s career and is the first to be shot entirely on IMAX’s 70 millimeter film cameras. Nolan has been open about why he wanted to tackle a myth this old on such a massive scale, explaining during press for the film that he was drawn to giving mythological cinema the same weight and credibility major studios have historically reserved for other epics.

The road to release wasn’t without controversy, particularly around casting choices tied to historical and mythological accuracy. Leading up to release, the costume and production designs, accents, dialogue, and casting choices sparked critical discussion and scrutiny regarding historical accuracy to the source material. Despite the noise, the film has been received well by critics upon its debut, premiering on July 6, 2026, at the Empire Leicester Square in London ahead of a theatrical release by Universal Pictures on July 17 in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The story hits the same major beats fans expect from the source material while adding Nolan’s own visual signature. After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Circe along the way. With Ludwig Göransson scoring and a cast this stacked, it’s shaping up to be the most talked about mythological epic in years.

With five very different takes on the legend now stacked side by side, which Odysseus feels the most true to you, Assante’s chronological wanderer, Sean Bean’s scheming strategist, Fiennes’s broken homecoming king, or Damon’s IMAX-sized epic hero?