Gods, Monsters, Heroes, IMAX: Universal Unveils Epic New Images From Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey”

On Monday night, we got our deepest look yet at Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Nolan was in New York last night to make an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—a bittersweet appearance given that Colbert’s final show will be on May 21—but Nolan nonetheless delighted the host and the audience when he unveiled the film’s official trailer.

While the cast is absolutely stacked, we haven’t really seen all that much of Nolan’s adaptation, save for glimpses of Matt Damon as the long-suffering Odysseus, waylaid on a quest to return home to Ithaca to reunite with his wife and son. The trailer and the cache of images released by Universal have now given us an extended look at some of the principal players. 

First up, of course, is Damon’s Odysseus, one of the heroes of the Trojan War whose journey home is thwarted by vengeful gods, seductive nymphs, sea monsters, and one very terrifying man-eating cyclops named Polyphemus.

Let’s take a look at some of the new images below. Spoiler alert—if you’re unaware of the broad strokes of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” you might want to gloss over the character descriptions. Or, better yet, read Emily Wilson’s fantastic recent translation.

The new images reveal one key figure from both Nolan’s film and Homer’s epic, who we didn’t see in the trailer—the goddess Athena, one of Odysseus’s few champions among the immortals on Mount Olympus. She is played, no less, by Zendaya.

Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, is played by Anne Hathaway. She gets a decent amount of screen time in the trailer, including this gorgeous shot of her carrying Odysseus’s bow, one of the most iconic moments from the story. Penelope, a very intelligent, patient person who outwits the rude, rowdy suitors vying for her hand in marriage and to become the new king of Ithaca, eventually declares that any suitor capable of successfully firing her long-lost husband’s bow can take her hand.

Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, is played by Tom Holland. Telemachus was just an infant when Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan war, and by the time his father returns, roughly 20 years later, he’s a young man. In that time, he’s had to watch his household overrun by men vying for his mother’s affections. It’s a rough way to grow up, but the young man endures and eventually becomes a key figure in Odysseus’s return, aided by Athena.

Of all the suitors trying to strongarm their way into Odysseus’s household, Aninous, played by Robert Pattinson, is the most aggressive and arrogant. He openly disrespects the household, violates the Greek code of hospitality by helping himself to the family’s food and wealth in Odysseus’s absence, and eventually plots to ambush and kill Telemachus.

One of Odysseus’s most loyal allies is Eumeaus, played by John Leguizamo. Eumaeus is Odysseus’s swineherd, and he’s deeply faithful to Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus. His kindness and loyalty are most apparent when an old, grizzled stranger appears at his door, and he treats him with compassion. That old man turns out to be his king.

One of the new images also includes this beauty of the Trojan Horse being hauled out of the Aegean sea. This is a clever departure from how the Trojan Horse has been portrayed in the past, namely in Book II of Virgil’s “Aeneid,” where the Greeks build the horse and leave it behind on the beach while pretending to sail away. One Greek soldier, Sinon, stays behind to convince the Trojans that the horse is a votive offering to Athena to ensure their safe voyage home. In Homer’s telling, the horse is mentioned in passing, in Books 4 and 8, where Odysseus and his men hide inside the wooden horse ot sack the city. In Nolan’s version, footage depicts the horse washing ashore, forcing the Trojans to haul it through the sand with cables.

And of course, there is Nolan himself, who, along with his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytema, used new, lighter-weight cameras this time around. The Odyssey is the first film shot entirely with IMAX cameras.

This is but a portion of the incredible cast. Not pictured are Charlize Theron’s Calypso, the nymph who seduces Odysseus and keeps him on her island of Ogygia against his will for years. She features prominently in the trailer. Jon Bernthal plays Menelaus, the King of Sparta and the husband of Helen. Benny Safdie plays Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus. Odysseus meets him in the underworld in “The Odyssey.” Mia Goth plays Melantho, one of Penelope’s maids, disloyal to Odysseus’s household. Himesh Patel plays Eurylochus, Odysseus’s second in command, a doubtful, pragmatic, often frightened member of Odysseus’s crew who often questions his judgment. Also in the film, in unspecified roles (although we’ve got a decent idea who some of these folks are playing) are Lupita Nyong’o, Logan Marshall-Green, Elliot Page, and Samantha Morton.

It all adds up to one of the year’s most emphatic must-see-in-the-theater films. The Odyssey sails into theaters on July 17.

Featured image: Matt Damon (center) is Odysseus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.