The Odyssey’s Cast Defied My Expectations. By a Lot.

There’s something with blockbusters where they are often designed to appeal to a general audience. That is why they are blockbusters, after all. Oftentimes, when you try to appeal to all demographics and interests, you end up appealing to none. Going into the opening weekend of The Odyssey (2026) I was worried that this would be the case. Long story short, it ended up being my favorite film of 2026 so far.

When I first saw the cast for The Odyssey, I was concerned that Nolan had picked the cast only because of the actors’ gargantuan fan following, which would rake in considerate word-of-mouth box office revenue. First, Nolan had casted both Matt Damon and Tom Holland as Odysseus and Telemachus, respectively. Both actors have a significant portion of their following that is deeply attracted to their physical appearance. The same went for some of the female casting choices including Zendaya and Lupita Nyong’o as Athena and Helen. Initially, I wondered if Nolan merely casted these actors because they are widely considered attractive and meet modern beauty standards, which would draw people to the theaters. This truly lowered my expectations because I strongly believe that acting skills are more important than looks in a film as monumental as The Odyssey. If it was for a romance, perhaps it would be a different story. You probably already know this just based on the thesis and title of my article, but I was wrong. The casting was perfect and resolved each of my concerns.

I also had my reservations regarding the hype of The Odyssey. Considering that the first people to see Nolan’s film—and rave about it—were influencers, I thought that initial impressions would be blown out of proportion, as these influencers are wont to do. Perhaps it would be a good movie, but not the incredible movie that influencers had made it out to be. To be completely honest with you, I don’t trust influencers much at all. I trust film critics.

My third qualm was, as I mentioned before, the film’s projection to be an absolute box office smash. For a film to truly dominate the box office, it must appeal to a large audience. When you broaden the appeal, you also lose much of the appeal’s potency. Would Nolan’s The Odyssey cater too much to the public and our TikTok attention spans? Or would it do something very brave, yet cinematic, and risk losing some potential viewers along the way? Nolan defied these “Gods” of cinema to create this masterpiece.

Being one of the oldest, and most monumental, stories in Western literature, Christopher Nolan had a lot to do justice to when creating his movie adaptation. How do you bring such an old story to life for a modern audience while also ensuring that it properly honors the original work?

Evidently, it wasn’t simple. Nolan revitalized the story through a modern interpretation that alluded to issues in our present society. Being the first movie filmed entirely for IMAX, he also injected the film with technological innovation that demonstrated the utter scale of the story visually. Furthermore, he spearheaded an entire culture phenomenon large enough to rival 2023’s Barbenheimer. Nolan has a lot of expectations to live up to.

I gained a little more hope during the opening weekend. Because I didn’t visit the theatre until Sunday, I was alert to much of the public discourse, especially on Substack, surrounding The Odyssey. Hearing fellow film critics praise the movie gave me hope for my personal experience. I took the influencers’ opinions with a grain of salt but take film critics’ opinions quite seriously.

When I went to the theaters, I was absolutely stoked. Not necessarily because I thought it would be some masterpiece, but more because I was interested in joining the public discourse on the film. You could feel the energy in the auditorium. The teenager in the family sitting next to me appeared very excited to watch. My father, and my younger brother, who I came to the theater with, were both thrilled as well. This vibrant energy radiated throughout.

Some of the first images that we see in The Odyssey are of Penelope and the suitors. Robert Pattinson’s performance as Antinous—the head suitor—immediately stunned me. He managed to exude an attitude that got under your skin just a little bit too much while also maintaining his seductive charisma. He reminded me of one of those attractive but morally sketchy men in many romance movies: one of those guys that the protagonist doesn’t want to like but truly they do. Pattinson captured the sexually pushy tendencies of Antinous that I noticed in Homer’s poem, while also bringing a modern twist to it. Pattinson seems to have a knack for playing complex romantics, as we also saw in The Drama (2026).

On the other hand, Anne Hathaway did an amazing job portraying Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Her personality was stoic for most of the film. However, her anger was wonderfully shown in one scene where she screamed at Telemachus, yelling that she would never marry a suitor and only wished to have Odysseus back. Hathaway really captured Penelope’s dual-natured character, bouncing between utmost stoicism and an unbridled temper, which truly reflected how a woman in mourning of her husband might act.

Tom Holland was the perfect casting choice for Telemachus, a character facing the transition between boyhood and manhood. With his costume design and somewhat muscular frame, he is putting on a tough exterior because that is what is expected of him. Nonetheless, Holland still feels soft at heart. With his youthful voice and absence of facial hair, Holland plays a Telemachus experiencing his coming-of-age story.

Elliot Page also lent a nice performance as the Greek soldier Sinon. As a soldier, his youthful appearance made him perfect to play the susceptible soldier who was written to lure Trojan warriors in.

Personally, I didn’t find Matt Damon’s performance to be all that impressive. Perhaps he was casted because of his looks and popularity. He didn’t do bad per se, but he didn’t stun me either. I felt that his line delivery, particularly while with Calypso, fell flat and could have been delivered better. Nonetheless, all the other exceptional performances made up for my mild disappointment with Damon.

Nolan really did something amazing with this film. He casted actors who would serve a dual purpose. Firstly, they drew audiences in because of the actors’ large fanbases. Secondly, and most importantly, the actors played their roles fantastically, more the most part. It’s an honorable feat for a director to cast actors that market the film while also playing their roles incredibly.

I applaud Nolan for this. Honestly, I didn’t expect much out of the cast beyond marketing for the film and general attractiveness. Yet Nolan surprised me and presented me with a star-studded cast that wasn’t star-studded for the sake of being star-studded. The cast genuinely embodied their roles with passion.

In the future, perhaps I should trust Christopher Nolan a little more because he defied my expectations, just like Odysseus defied the Gods.