Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Adaptation Questioned By Knowledgeable

Harvard professor and Greek literature professional questions how Christopher Nolan goes to deal with Matt Damon’s problematic hero within the 2026 film, The Odyssey. Slated to reach subsequent summer season, the Oppenheimer director’s upcoming epic motion fantasy tells the story of Odysseus’s (Damon) ten-year journey dwelling after the Trojan Warfare, the place he fights mystical creatures and faces trials to say the throne.

Becoming a member of Damon within the solid are Tom Holland (Telemachus), Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Anne Hathaway, Elliot Web page, Mia Goth, and lots of others.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Owen Danoff, Gregory Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard College, expressed doubts about how the upcoming movie will strategy Odysseus, an advanced hero. The professor argued that Odysseus is a “trickster determine” fairly than a standard hero, and one of many questionable choices he made was killing a child. Take a look at his remark beneath:

Even The Odyssey is conscious of a really, very questionable few moments in Odysseus’ life the place he truly kills a toddler in struggle. How do you want that? And what are we going to do with it? Is Matt Damon going to kill a child?

I will arrange the desk for you. Beginning in Rhapsody 6 and occurring into Rhapsody 7 and Rhapsody 8, he is washed up on the shores of this By no means By no means Land [where] the inhabitants are referred to as the Phaeacians. [It’s] a pleasant conventional society. If you are going to be good to a stranger, it’s since you’re exhibiting your individual ethical decency, no questions requested. No questions on, “Who’re you?”

Nagy additional defined how the element was a key emotional second in Odysseus’ journey dwelling and questioned how Nolan’s film will strategy the scene that weaves two timelines collectively. Learn his remark beneath:

So, he is this whole stranger who’s washed up onshore, however the royalty is suspecting he is an vital man. So they do not ask who he’s; they simply give him a really fancy dinner. After which the thought is, “Effectively, quid professional quo, after I feast, they’re so good to me that [I’ll] inform them who I’m and my story.”

He tells his story, however he postpones as a result of he is a trickster. He isn’t your regular hero, he is a trickster determine, so he does not actually establish himself till a blind singer performs three songs. [For the] final of the three songs, the disguised Odysseus says, “I’ve heard you sing these stunning issues. Might you sing the track of the story of Troy?” And, after all, he is positively a personality in that, as a result of he is the inventor of the Computer virus. He will get credit score within the Odyssey for capturing Troy–superb, however technically no one is aware of that he’s the star, so to talk, of his model of the Trojan Warfare.

So, the story is instructed–and I can reconstruct for you that as a result of we’ve got plot outlines of how that occurred–that when Troy lastly is captured, Odysseus himself takes the kid of Hector and Andromache, who’re the nicest folks within the Iliad, and he takes the infant to the very best level in Troy and throws the infant to his loss of life.

You and I might reconstruct that if we research all of the epic traditions and no matter. So there is a retelling of what the blind man is saying, and level by level, it matches precisely what Odysseus truly did. So he is the star of the story, however no one is aware of that he is within the viewers and he is listening.

However when the blind singer will get to the half the place the boy is captured and X, Y, [and] Z occurred, while you get to level Z the place Odysseus goes to go up and commit a criminal offense, the narrative stops and says, “Whereas Odysseus was listening to this, he began crying. He was weeping, and weeping, and weeping, similar to a captive lady when her little one was killed and her husband was killed.

The digital camera, so to talk, strikes away from this story inside a narrative, and also you see the viewers experiencing the identical ache that the sufferer of a struggle crime experiences. How the hell are you going to try this in a film?

What This Means For The Odyssey

Matt Damon’s Hero Is Difficult

The Odyssey sees the director pivoting from science fiction and struggle films and journeying into the fantasy style. Nonetheless, the film’s wealthy supply materials, epic setting, and themes of homecoming and resilience align with Nolan’s previous works, corresponding to Interstellar, Inception, and Tenet​​​​​​.

Nagy’s remark factors out the ethical complexity of Odysseus and the significance of together with these controversial moments in The Odyssey, whereas detailing how technically difficult it will likely be for the filmmaker to seize the emotional weight, linking the previous to the current. However, Nolan can also be recognized for non-linear storytelling that weaves the previous and current timelines collectively.

Our Take On Matt Damon’s Function In The Odyssey

The Odyssey Will Doubtless Embrace Odysseus’ Controversial Selections

That includes these moments may not pose a technical difficulty for the director, nevertheless it’ll possible make the film very darkish for the large display. Nolan has but to touch upon why he determined to make a big-screen adaptation of Homer’s poem of the identical title, however he does have a monitor report of that includes morally gray protagonists who wrestle with the alternatives they make in his films.

Odysseus’ controversial choices will possible play a key position in his homecoming journey within the upcoming film, however whether or not the film will go as far as to indicate him killing a toddler is unknown.

As a fan of Nolan, I don’t doubt that if the filmmaker decides to incorporate the second, he’ll do a terrific job at maximizing its emotional weight. And actually, what the professional described makes me much more enthusiastic about The Odyssey.