Christopher Nolan has officially done it again. The first proper trailer for The Odyssey, his hotly anticipated follow-up to Oppenheimer, has arrived online, and it looks every bit as colossal, chaotic and cinema-shaking as we’d hoped.
This is our first real look at Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic poem, following Matt Damon’s Odysseus on his decade-long journey home after the Trojan War. And while the trailer isn’t the full five-minute IMAX-only preview that’s been playing ahead of Avatar: Fire And Ash, it’s more than enough to confirm that Nolan is swinging for the fences, and possibly inventing a few new ones while he’s at it.
The teaser is heavy on mood and scale. We see Odysseus battered by storms, trudging across vast landscapes and sailing towards inevitable disaster, while brief glimpses introduce Anne Hathaway as his long-suffering wife Penelope and Tom Holland as his son Telemachus.
There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of Benny Safdie in full armour as Agamemnon, but otherwise Nolan is keeping his frankly ridiculous supporting cast, which also includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal largely under wraps for now.
Instead, the trailer leans into pure myth. The Trojan Horse looms large, dragged ominously from the sea. Soldiers hide inside, bloodied and silent. And then there’s a huge moment: a hulking, nightmarish Cyclops emerging in the shadows of a cave, looking genuinely terrifying in a way that suggests Nolan isn’t interested in softening the legend for modern audiences. It’s grim, physical and properly unsettling – exactly how you’d want it.
Visually, The Odyssey already feels immense. Shot entirely on IMAX film, the movie looks drenched in real locations, real weather and real danger, with that unmistakable Nolan sense of physical heft where every wave, sword and explosion feels like it weighs a ton. This is blockbuster filmmaking on an operatic scale, the kind we don’t get nearly often enough.
Coming off the back of Oppenheimer, a nearly billion-dollar, seven-Oscar juggernaut, expectations are sky-high, but this trailer suggests Nolan is leaning fully into the challenge. Ancient myth, cutting-edge technology, and a cast stacked to absurd levels? It’s a heady combination.
At Shortlist, we’re already counting the days. The Odyssey is shaping up to be not just Nolan’s biggest film yet, but quite possibly the biggest cinematic event of 2026, full stop. Clear your calendars: it lands in cinemas on 17 July 2026, and we’ll absolutely be seeing it on the biggest screen possible.
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