Christopher Nolan is back in his epic arena, this time bringing Homer’s The Odyssey to life, and the first images of Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Mia Goth are nothing short of spellbinding. If you thought Nolan only did mind-bending time travel or tight character studies, think again. He’s turning the seas, the palace intrigues, and the ache of homecoming into a cinematic beast.
The first stills dropped by Empire (yes, Empire came through with the exclusives) show Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Odysseus’s steadfast wife. She’s regal, composed, but there’s fire behind her gaze, the kind of quiet strength only years of waiting and palace politics can forge. Just behind her, clad in a modest brown costume, stands Mia Goth as Melantho, one of the palace maids. But there’s a complexity to her framing. She feels neither merely supportive nor purely subservient. In Homer’s tale, Melantho’s loyalties are murky, and these images lean into that ambiguity beautifully. And then there’s Tom Holland, armoured, determined, not as some youthful warrior, but as Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, caught between longing, responsibility and the weight of legacy.
What’s really thrilling here is how Nolan is tackling The Odyssey. Reportedly, every shotwas filmed in large-format IMAX. This isn’t about using IMAX for just big set-pieces. He’s leaned into the intimacy, the emotional close-ups, and the scale, all in full immersive format. He told Empire that one of the things drawing him to Homer’s story was how “wily” Odysseus is much more than a warrior. He is a strategist and a trickster. He also leaned on the Emily Wilson translation (the one that begins “Tell me about a complicated man”), signalling that his adaptation may honour not just the mythic sweep but the psychological depth.
Penelope’s burden & poise brilliantly depicts how Hathaway captures both loyalty and power. Penelope isn’t a passive figure. She’s the axis around which Ithaca spins. Goth’s Melantho feels electric in stillness.The lurking tension suggests her role could be deeper (and darker) than we expect. Holland’s Telemachus looks far from petulant youth, he’s grappling with legacy, identity and a potentially dangerous path ahead.
Nolan is no stranger to epic – Interstellar, Inception, Oppenheimer — but The Odyssey might be his most ambitious in terms of scale and heart. He’s not just retelling a myth; he’s mining it for its emotional truth. These first photos suggest a version of The Odyssey that’s grand, but also deeply human. And if Nolan’s entire film is shot in IMAX? That’s going to feel like watching a myth unfold in real life. The sea, the palace, the longing, all gigantic, yet visceral. These first-look images don’t just tease a big-budget fantasy. They promise a mythic, character-driven journey. And with a cast like this, Nolan seems poised to deliver something as timeless as the poem that inspired it.
