Christopher Nolan is finally making his Greek epic The Odyssey, but it turns out this isn’t the first time the director nearly stepped into the world of ancient myth. In a new interview with Empire, Nolan confirmed that more than 20 years ago, Warner Bros. initially hired him—not Wolfgang Petersen—to direct Troy, the 2004 swords-and-sandals blockbuster starring Brad Pitt.
“I was originally hired by Warner Bros. to direct Troy. Wolfgang had developed it, and so when the studio decided not to proceed with his superhero movie [Batman vs. Superman], he wanted it back. At the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore. So it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time. Certain images, particularly. How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.”
At the time, he had just transitioned into studio filmmaking with 2002’s Insomnia (a murder-mystery remake of a Scandi thriller with Al Pacino and Robin Williams), and Warner Bros. wanted to keep him in-house. Ironically, when the studio decided to hand Troy back to Petersen, it offered Nolan Batman Begins as what he jokingly calls a “consolation prize.”
That “consolation” became one of the most influential comic-book adaptations in film history and launched Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy—arguably Hollywood’s most revered modern franchise. Petersen’s Troy, meanwhile, opened in 2004 to mixed reviews but grossed nearly $500 million worldwide, making it the highest-earning Greek epic ever produced.
Now, two decades later, Nolan is circling back to the mythology he never got to explore. His upcoming film The Odyssey—a grand, IMAX-shot adaptation of Homer’s poem—fulfills that long-standing creative itch.
What Can We Expect from 'The Odyssey'?
The cast includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal, and that's just some of them. There's more stars than you'll find in the sky.
“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” Nolan told Empire. “And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with—Ray Harryhausen movies and other things—I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do.”
The Odyssey is set to hit theaters July 17, 2026.
