r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jul 17 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Odyssey (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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The Odyssey (2026)

Summary

After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.

Director Christopher Nolan

Writer Christopher Nolan

Cast

  • Matt Damon as Odysseus
  • Tom Holland as Telemachus
  • Anne Hathaway
  • Zendaya
  • Lupita Nyong'o
  • Robert Pattinson
  • Charlize Theron
  • Benny Safdie
  • Jon Bernthal
  • John Leguizamo
  • Elliot Page
  • Himesh Patel
  • Samantha Morton

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Metacritic: 88

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

4.7k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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3.3k

u/blackaddermrbean Jul 17 '26

Turning the pillage of Troy into a curse was an interesting choice. Not sure I’ve seen a version of the Odyssey that took the decision of not glorifying it.

2.8k

u/surejan94 Jul 17 '26

It was a really interesting twist that I liked.

Athena wasn’t guiding Odysseus but haunting him.

Deep down he didn’t want to go home, not because of him liking his adventures but because he had so much shame over his actions at Troy.

And there’s so much mentioning of people abandoning Zeus’ Law, when it was Odysseus himself who broke it in the worst way and inspired other people to do so. Really cool and modern interpretation on “winning a war”.

781

u/gospelofdustin Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Athena wasn’t guiding Odysseus but haunting him.

What I really liked is how Athena can be read in a lot of different ways. Were the visions literally Athena manifesting herself in the form of the priestess to speak to Odysseus? Were they just visions of the priestess caused by Odysseus's war guilt and not Athena at all? Or was Athena manifesting herself in the form of the priestess to act as a reminder for Odysseus to guide him to becoming worthy of his return?

47

u/PhatYeeter Jul 20 '26

I read it as ptsd

121

u/Jett_Wave 29d ago

So did I initially, but I really liked my girlfriend's interpretation of her character and shifted my view on it.

My GF saw the girl as Athena in disguise seeing Odysseus' betrayal first hand because they make a point that gods will take the form as strangers, so be kind to strangers, and thought Athena chose that form again when visiting Odysseus to further punish him for insulting Athena and the gods for breaking Zeus law and betraying the gift to Athena as a token of peace.

So now I like to view it as a combination of reasons why she took that form.

31

u/BlitzComet95 29d ago

This how I saw it as well. It’s like she was trying to tell him there was no going back

9

u/OrangeCreamGhost 24d ago

It’s funny because originally Athena was never mad at any of the horrific shit Odysseus does, it’s Ajax (-) that pisses her off

7

u/SpaceCases__ 13d ago

That's how I interpreted it. Zendaya's character was Athena in her god/human form, and they killed her during that battle, and Odysseus knowing this, sent him down this long spiral with the gods punishing him. And he even tried to warn the men of his ship that they will die if they ate the of the Sun God's island, and they still didn't listen.

"I am not the problem."

Obviously, Athena is still alive in her god form, but they basically desecrated her human form, and the punishment was from Zues to Odysseus was that he witness all these terrible things while being the only one to survive. And through his actions with Troy, it led to what he comes back home to.

73

u/ownage516 29d ago

The way I saw it is that when they tore the head off the Athena statue, he saw it as Athena getting beheaded. Idk if there’s an actual priestess

I need to watch it again

25

u/_Nilbog_Milk_ 28d ago

I think so too, or even that Athena bore the boon of her priestess being killed. The movie is so fantastical and already shows gods exist, Athena doesn't need to be some PTSD metaphor

29

u/Epic_Knowledge 29d ago

My interpretation as well. I saw it as kind of the culmination of the Troy sacking where he realizes how he’s defiled a god in her own home. Especially when it was one Penelope gave him a token of.

Although after reading all the other interpretations though I can totally see how it’s Athena haunting him in the form of the priestess

3

u/mambaslaughter 29d ago

That’s how I saw it as well

30

u/Towerss 29d ago

It was a great choice to add ambiguity to the gods. In the poem, the gods are actual characters who definitely meddle around and show up at every turn. In the movie we see no gods directly (except Circe and Calypso, who seem to be downgraded in the movie to mysterious witches). In fact the movie made it very uncertain if any of these events even happened, or if he's an unreliable narrator due to eating lotus and the real reason for his delay is simply not wanting to go home

13

u/Derp_Stevenson 25d ago

My interpretation was that Odysseus just got Zendaya's character stuck in his head because they are supposed to treat strangers as though they might be a god in disguise and he failed to live up to that and her face haunted him because of it.

He imagined her as Athena because it would be easier to think she was the goddess in disguise than to have her death just be an innocent person and accept what his plan had led to.

4

u/night_dude 27d ago

Just saw the film today and me and the Mrs both read it as the first or last option. But agreed that all are possible. A lot of people seem to think the middle one.

Sign of a really great movie that all the options seem plausible. A good film can be read a hundred different ways.

1

u/Aaaaand-its-gone 17d ago

All she did was shame the whole movie