'Aesthetic catastrophe': Why Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey', his costliest movie ever, is being trolled

Christopher Nolan's upcoming film The Odyssey has found itself at the centre of an online controversy, with many fans and critics taking to social media to slam the movie even before its release.

While some users criticised the film for its “wrong casting”, others accused Nolan of altering Greek history and mythology.

One social media user, Alain Astruc, who describes himself as an artist, harshly criticised the film’s visual style and tone.



“The only thing epic here is the aesthetic catastrophe,” he wrote.

“Nothing in this trailer is Greek. Nothing is Mediterranean. No olive groves and no white stone burning under the sun and no salt and no pine and no sea-glare. A deracinated Odyssey, made for imaginary nobodies from nowhere,” he added.

Alain further claimed that the script appears to reduce Odyssey into a simplified retelling rather than capturing the spirit of the ancient poem.


“It feels like it's going to be the work of a diligent student who took down the events of the Odyssey one by one, forgetting that this is not a novel but an archaic poem, from a time when men and women lived each word as a heartbeat,” he wrote.

Criticising the casting choices, he added, “Circe in her smoke and Calypso in her cave and Penelope at her loom, the sensuality of witches and the rigid loyalty of wives, all replaced by a fashion-armor Athena and a Penelope played as a strong American woman.”

Another X user objected to the portrayal of Helen of Troy, writing, “Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, was described by Homer with golden blonde hair, dazzling white skin and divine European beauty that launched a thousand ships. She was a Greek woman, not Sub-Saharan African. This is not representation. This is erasure of Greek and European history and identity.”


Another quipped: If Homer came to the future and saw what Nolan has done to his Epic , he would run back to the past as fast as he could and never write the Odyssey!"

The film features an ensemble cast led by Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page and Benny Safdie.


Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is also reportedly set to become the filmmaker’s most expensive movie ever, with a production budget of at least $250 million, surpassing the $200–$250 million budget range of Tenet and The Dark Knight Rises.


Nolan had earlier described the film as being rooted in the origins of superhero storytelling. During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the filmmaker compared Homer’s epics to modern comic book universes.

“Even comic book culture, whether you're talking about Marvel or DC or all the rest, a lot of it comes directly from the Homeric Epics,” Nolan said.

“The thing about Homer is, nobody knows if that was a person. Homer, in a way, is the sort of George Lucas of his time,” he added.

Nolan also praised Tom Holland, who plays Telemachus in the film, calling him “an incredible talent”.

The director further spoke about reuniting with Anne Hathaway, who plays Penelope in the movie. Referring to her recent project The Devil Wears Prada 2, Nolan said, “I watched it last night. It was fabulous. With Emily Blunt as well. Terrific.”

Oppenheimer, Nolan’s previous release, received widespread acclaim and became one of the biggest films of 2023.

'The Odyssey' is currently among the most anticipated films of the 2026 summer season and is slated to release on July 17.