r/ChristopherNolan

The Odyssey has A LOT of characters, and while the casting decisions for the most relevant ones have already been announced, I can't help but wonder who's going to play the rest of them. Here are some of them without an assigned actor at the moment. Maybe they don't even appear in the final film, who knows. Also, as is typical with recent Nolan films, we can be pretty sure that some well-known faces will be popping up unannounced in the movie.

Zeus

God of thunder, he appears multiple times in the story discussing Odysseus' fate with the rest of the gods.

Poseidon

God of sea. He appears multiple times through the entire odyssey, making Odysseus' return to Ithaca almost impossible.

Hermes

God of travellers, he appears twice in the Odyssey: one to convince Calypso to free Odysseus, and to help Odysseus not fall for Circe's magic.

Alcinous

Ruler of the phaiacians, he provides Odysseus with a boat after listening to his entire tale.

Nausicaa

Daughter of Alcinous, ruler of the phaiacians, she's the one that finds Odysseus on the island.

Anticlea

Odysseus' mother, who he finds out died while visiting Tyresias in the Underworld.

Laertes

Odysseus' father, he appears at the very end of the story.

Aeolus

He's the ruler of the winds that Odysseus and his crew visit twice during their travel. He gives Odysseus a bag containing all the winds.

Eurycleia

One of Penelope's most loyal servants. She recognizes Odysseus under his disguise as a beggar because of a scar he has.

Nestor

He's an elderly warrior that fought alongside Odysseus in Troy. Telemachus visits him at the beginning of the story, while looking for his father.

Achilles

The warrior makes a little appearance while Odysseus and his crew visit the Underworld.

Arnaeus

He's a beggar that tries to beat Odysseus in a fight to entertain the suitors.

Leucothea

She's a minor goddess who helps Odysseus with a veil to survive Poseidon's storm, after he leaves Calypso's island.

Yes - I know it's been said that the gods will not be shown in physical form. But as of today, it has not been confirmed as "100% we will not see Zeus in physical form", so I'm including them as possible appearances. I've also included Achilles, because although there's been a lot of online discussion about Elliot Page playing him, it's just a possibility and it's not clear who will actually play him (I personally think Elliot Page is going to be Elpenor).

I honestly see Florence Pugh playing the role of Nausicaa, she looks the part. And she has already worked with Nolan in Oppenheimer.

And I can picture Ellen Burstyn playing Anticlea, Odysseus' mother. Also, she worked with Nolan in Interstellar.

And, why not, I also see Kenneth Branagh playing Zeus. That could be extremely cool.

What are your thoughts?

Found this video interesting. There has never been one way to tell this story throughout history. Among other things, I also leaned that while the original text is from 800 BCE, the events depicted in the story are from 1100-1200 BCE. So the story we have written down by Homer and endlessly translated is already 300-400 years after it has already been told through oral history and morphed and changed. From what I understand, most historians and experts are just looking for the essence of the story to be preserved, but artistic liberties are not an issue. I’m very interested in Christopher Nolan’s take on this story.

This is such a confusing complaint to me, it feels like a reddit inside joke at this point. Outside of Tenet (which was less "I couldn't hear the dialogue" for me and more "it's so fucking loud I'm going deaf") and Dark Knight Rises (which got completely fixed on release), I've never had a single problem with hearing the dialogue in his movies. But I see redditors, especially on r/movies, love to bring this up under any post about Nolan, EVER.

It's like their favorite joke as an easy karma hack to get free quick upvotes - just type "can't wait to not hear the dialogue haha"...

Maybe it's a specific theater you go to? Idk I've gone to digital IMAX and Dolby for most of his work - no complaints outside of the cases I mentioned. Not Oppenheimer, not Interstellar (I know a theater in the US that put a sign saying that the "loudness" of the movie was by design, but it has nothing to do with the dialogue), not anything else.

Unpacking some of the sh*t I've seen online from (mostly) grifters about The Odyssey.

1. "Elliot Page is trans and therefore shouldn't be Achilles."

There is no confirmation that Page is playing Achilles (or Achilles' ghost rather). It is more likely he's playing Elpenor (and his ghost), who was one of Odysseus' youngest companions. Homer describes Elpenor as the youngest and not physically very strong - would be more fitting considering Page's physical appearance. In the translation by Robert Fagles, Elpenor is described as: "the youngest in our company, not much of a fighter or steady in wit."

Personally I'm expecting the ghost of Achilles to be played by a surprise casting, which Nolan has been known to do. But since all of this is unconfirmed, it's a pointless grievance. Also, the whole "they are making Ancient Greek gay" argument is really dumb. Ancient Greeks were hardly strangers to same-sex desire or emotional intimacy between men.

2. "The armor is not historically accurate."

This is likely a conscious decision in terms of the visuals that Nolan and the costume designer prefer to show on screen. And it seems they've has chosen a general "Ancient Greek" setting to set this in. When the story was told and heard most, not when the Trojan War actually took place. (By the way, Homer's account of the Trojan War is also not historically accurate.)

3. "Travis Scott shouldn't be in the movie."

Mediterranean diversity is hardly implausible. There were Africans in Greece "back then" and have been depicted in their art as well, some of them could've been bards as Scott is in the trailer. Completely plausible. Though I do agree that casting a well known rapper (non-actor) can be a bit immersion-breaking. But hey, Harry Styles and David Bowie worked fine. And Scott is playing a sort of rapper/poet anyway.

4. "The Ancient Greeks didn't talk like that."

Yeah, I'm sure they never used terms like "dad" and everybody was super archaic and sounded like British royalty.

Some characters talk and sound like soldiers would (simplistic lingo "Let's go home!"), or like an asshole (Pattinson's Antinous demeaning Telemachus by saying "pining for a daddy you don't even know, like some sniveling bastard") and a young son genuinely afraid for his dad ("Where is my dad?"). Older, wiser men like Eumaus speak noticably differently: "Darkness, Zeus' law smashed into pieces, a kingdom without a king since my master died." (from the first teaser)

Maybe Nolan is trying to inject more humanity into this story, so the dialogue is more simplistic and more in tune with how people actually talk to each other? Not like actors onstage at the West End.

5. "There are no actors playing Gods." / "Nolan is tuning down the fantasy."

Zendaya is playing Athena (a goddess). Charlize Theron is Calypso (a nymph, minor deity). Samantha Morton is Circe (also a nymph/goddess). And we are getting Polyphemus, the Laestrygonians, Scylla, Charybdis, the Sirens. Also, the Gods constantly disguised themselves as humans in this story. And forces of nature. We're probably not getting a giant Ben Affleck shirtless and splashing about in the Aegean sea with a trident. Dodged a bullet there.

6. "Lupita Nyong'o is Helen of Troy. This is wrong because she is black and ugly."

Nyong'o is playing both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra. In Jordan Peele's "Us" she also played a dual role and killed it, so I'm guessing the main reason for Nolan casting her is because she is a good actress who can pull off roles like that.

Helen of Troy is indeed described as "fair", i.e. not working the field etc, and Ancient Greeks would've probably imagined Helen as "mediterranean-looking". So this is a noticably different take on the character, which might also be the point of the casting perhaps. Helen's presence is immediately noticable as different, standing out. But I will give that it's not out of the question that casting is at least a little bit purposefully controversial.

As for her being "ugly", that's just ridiculous.

7. "Everything looks so bland and muted."

This is the most ridiculous complaint. Have you not seen the first teaser? The prologue? The trailers? Yes, the color grading is not like Super Mario, but it's Nolan's most vivid looking film yet.

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There are obviously also fair criticisms and concerns regarding many aspects of Nolan's big-budget Hollywood-style adaptation as well, but we won't know until the movie's out and I do feel a lot of these are just really dumb takes and premature speculations that deserve to be refuted.

I'm hoping Nolan will stick to his vision and not repeat the same mistake that happened in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises, when people we're complaining about Bane's voice so much that the final cut had his voice redubbed and 3x louder than every other character.

Looking forward to the movie!

EDIT: Corrected a misgendering.

Just wanted to share my excitement for this film. Despite all the drama out there about minor characters in The Odyssey that will barely have 5-10 mins of screen time, it does not change the fact that this will be a film to experience in the big screen from a visionary directory with a great track record. I am eagerly awaiting for tickets to go on sale to book them, hopefully it will open soon.

If you are equally as pumped for this, share your excitement in the comments.