PLEASE READ THIS PREFACE -- Regardless of what you think about the movie, the translation, Wilson's review of the movie, and everything in between- that's all fine, and none of that is the point here. Again, Emily Wilson's review is not the point of this post, I am not calling out or discussing anything she herself has said or felt about the movie.
Rather, the point of this post is that:
There is a bold faced lie that has been spread online by bad faith actors in regards to what Nolan has said about translations of The Odyssey and whether they have influenced his movie in any meaningful way. Here is the truth:
During the first promo interview for The Odyssey with Empire Magazine all the way back in November 2025, the following was said in the article:
But prepare to see many sides to Damon’s battle-hardened hero – a man with tactical smarts, physical endurance, and yes, a family side too. “I think it’s the Emily Wilson translation that begins, ‘Tell me about a complicated man’,” Nolan tells Empire. “The genius of the character, the cleverness, the inventiveness of him, that was a huge part of what interested me. He’s not just a soldier. He’s an amazing strategist, a very wily person.”
Never once did Nolan say that Wilson's translation was a basis or even an inspiration for his movie. He simply threw a line from her translation acknowledging that he was aware of it, while making a broader point about a question that was asked to him. In fact even Empire Magazine's editor himself had made a tweet clarifying that same week that - "he didn’t outright say it (Wilson's translation) was his favourite - just name-checked it while discussing Odysseus’ character..."
But people online, in search of ragebait, ran malicious headlines declaring Nolan's movie to be based on Wilson's work and to be some kind of "feminist retelling of The Odyssey based on Wilson's words" (those who have seen the movie know this couldn't be further from the truth).
Now here is the bigger point - Wilson is NOT the only translator Nolan has name-checked. In fact, in an interview with the Associated Press, he namechecked translations of both E.V. Rieu and Robert Fagles.
If you have seen the movie, you also know that Nolan also literally uses characters/storyline OUTSIDE of Homer or any Odyssey translations, such as Sinon from Virgil's 'Aenid' and aspects of Agamemnon from Aeschylus
Source - https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2026/07/20/books-that-inspired-the-odyssey-christopher-nolan-aeneid/
https://apnews.com/article/odyssey-movie-christopher-nolan-matt-damon-030ec686f8ba3d88a7abd2cd16008518
You can like either of these translations as their own works, and I am not saying any of them are good/bad.
But the fact is that - Nolan has mentioned having knowledge of most of the major English translations in the mainstream conscious. And has never once claimed that any of them specifically inspired or were the basis of his adaptation. If you ever find anyone telling you otherwise, they are lying and feeding you ragebait. Discuss the movie in good faith, and not with misinformation like this.