Christopher Nolan Drops The Odyssey Trailer: Matt Damon Sets Sail on a Mythic Epic Poised to Dominate Next Summer
The Oppenheimer director storms Olympus in the all-new trailer for The Odyssey, a thunderclap tease of gods, monsters, and a hero hell-bent on getting home.
Christopher Nolan finally showed his cards on The Odyssey. After months of whispers, that IMAX prologue sighting, and a single image of Matt Damon looking very helmet-and-toga, we now have a full trailer — and it looks like classic, go-for-broke Nolan myth-making.
What the prologue shows (and where to see it)
We got a handful of official first-look photos, then Nolan quietly rolled out a prologue in IMAX in early December, attached to screenings of Sinners and One Battle After Another. That same prologue is now playing before Avatar: Fire and Ash.
"You hear the story of the horse?"
That line kicks things off, followed by the sight of a massive wooden horse dragged by ropes toward Troy’s gates. The trick is revealed, the trap is sprung, and chaos erupts. The new full trailer folds in some of that footage and expands the scope to the larger journey.
The story Nolan is tackling
Fresh off his Oppenheimer Oscars, Nolan is adapting one of the oldest epics we’ve got: King Odysseus trying to get home to Ithaca after the decade-long Trojan War. The trip takes another ten years, because the gods keep throwing monsters and trials in his path. Back home, his son Telemachus — expected to be played by Tom Holland — is trying to hold the line as swarms of suitors circle Penelope, eager to marry her before Odysseus returns. In other words: the clock is always ticking, which feels very on-brand.
How massive this shoot really was
Nolan says they shot over two million feet of film — close to 400 miles of it — and spent months filming on the open ocean. He clocked roughly four months at sea and called the experience pretty primal. Also, nerdy production detail: this is billed as the first feature shot entirely in IMAX. Expect colossal images and sound to match.
The cast is stacked
- Matt Damon
- Tom Holland
- Anne Hathaway
- Zendaya
- Robert Pattinson
- Lupita Nyong'o
- Charlize Theron
- Jon Bernthal
- Elliot Page
- Mia Goth
- Benny Safdie
- Ryan Hurst
- John Leguizamo
When you can see it
The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, 2026. If the trailer is any indication, Nolan is not playing small here — it looks huge, strange, and expensive in all the best ways.