Christopher Nolan’s next film, ‘The Odyssey,’ is an IMAX epic. Here’s everything we know.

Homer is the attributed author of two ancient Greek poems that were composed in the 8th or 7th century BC, both of which tell the story of the Trojan War.

“The Iliad” narrates the end of the war, while “The Odyssey” tells of Odysseus’ 10-year struggle to return to his island home of Ithaca.

During the journey, Odysseus and his crew fight against a man-eating cyclops, powerful giants, and sirens. They defeat witches and sea monsters, and anger the gods Zeus and Poseidon. But Odysseus has one god, Athena, on his side, trying to help him get home.

Meanwhile, a band of suitors are trying to take over Odysseus’ kingdom in Ithaca, supplanting his son Telemachus and convincing Penelope to marry one of them.

In a dramatic conclusion, Odysseus disguises himself as a beggar and sneaks back onto the island, where he observes the actions of the suitors before reclaiming his family and kingdom.

This will be Nolan’s first film about Greek mythology, breaking away from his regular sci-fi and war films. Nolan also wrote the script.

Nolan has a reputation for drawing ensemble casts of A-listers, but “The Odyssey” may be his biggest project yet.

Matt Damon will play the film’s lead hero, Odysseus; Anne Hathaway will play his wife, Penelope; and Tom Holland will play their son, Telemachus. Other stars with confirmed roles in the cast include Charlize Theron (Circe), Zendaya (Athena), Robert Pattinson (Antinous), Mia Goth (Melantho), Benny Safdie (Agamemnon), Jon Bernthal (Menelaus), John Leguizamo (Eumaeus), Himesh Patel (Eurylochus), and Jimmy Gonzales (Cepheus).

There are also a host of actors in the cast whose parts have not yet been revealed, including Lupita Nyong’o, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Samantha Morton, Corey Hawkins, Nick Tarabay, Maurice Compte, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Michael Vlamis, Iddo Goldberg, and Ryan Hurst.

Damon, Hathaway, Pattinson, Patel, Safdie, Irwin, and Page have all previously worked with Nolan.

Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was partially filmed on the island of Favignana near Sicily, Variety reported.

Known in ancient times as Aegusa, or “goat island,” it’s thought to be the inspiration for the fantastical island where Odysseus lands with his crew and stops to rest, barbecue goats, and drink wine before his run-in with the Cyclops.

Per Variety, the scenes shot in Sicily are said to take up the bulk of the mythical action in the movie, while locations in the UK and Morocco are also being used.

Production wrapped in early August 2025.

The movie’s first trailer was unveiled in late December 2025. It had 121.4 million views in its first 24 hours online, according to Forbes.

That’s double the views the “Oppenheimer” trailer did in its first day online.

That feat had previously been impossible because the cameras are extremely noisy.

Nolan, who has always loved shooting on IMAX, challenged the company to come up with a quieter camera. Damon told the “New Heights” podcast in January what it was like working with the new camera.

“IMAX cameras are really loud. It sounds like a blender, like a Cuisinart in your face when the camera’s close to you,” Damon told hosts Jason and Travis Kelce. So there’s never been these dialogue [scenes in IMAX]. We couldn’t have this conversation with a normal IMAX camera because you wouldn’t be able to hear us.”

“They built this giant thing around the IMAX for those dialogue scenes and a system of mirrors so your eye line would be close to the camera and you could talk to the other actor,” Damon continued. “The amount of work that went into figuring out how to do [that], because he wanted to do 100 percent IMAX, and he did it!”

In a TV ad for the movie that ran during the NFL playoffs in late January, Travis Scott made an appearance as a character telling a group the story of the Trojan War.

Scott was not previously listed as part of the cast.

The Grammy-nominated rapper is no stranger to Nolan. For his 2020 movie “Tenet,” Scott wrote and performed its theme song, “The Plan.”

Pattinson has a brief but important role in “The Odyssey” playing Antinous, who seeks to take the hand of Penelope (Anne Hathaway) while Odysseus is away from Ithaca.

In GQ story about the movie, Pattinson revealed the Martin Scorsese character he modeled his performance after.

“My character’s a little like James Woods in ‘Casino.’ That was my inspiration for it,” Pattinson said, referring to Woods’ pimp conman Lester Diamond. “I thought it’d be quite nice to see it in Ithaca. And he’s like a little sleazy. I kept saying at my costume fitting, I was like, ‘I really want to have leopard underpants.’ I want to have it just coming out of my skirt, a little sparkly fur.”

In a Time magazine cover story published in May 2026, Nolan defended the armor Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon wears in the trailer.

The imposing black look was critiqued online by viewers who claimed the costume looked more like something Batman would wear than a commander during the Trojan War. But Nolan told the magazine the look is authentic to the time.

“There are Mycenaean daggers that are blackened bronze,” he said. “The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it and then use sulfur.”

“With Agamemnon, Ellen [Mirojnick], our costume designer, is trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive,” he said.