The first-look images of Anne Hathaway, Mia Goth, and Tom Holland from Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey have been exclusively released by Empire Online.
In the film, Hathaway plays Penelope, Odysseus’s loyal wife, marking her third collaboration with Nolan. Goth portrays Melantho, a palace maid whose loyalties may be questionable, and Holland appears as Telemachus, the son Odysseus desperately hopes to reunite with. See the images below.
The Odyssey centers on Odysseus (Matt Damon), a man fighting to return home after years at war and another decade lost at sea. Christopher Nolan revisits the emotional theme of “finding a way back home,” but this time through the original myth that inspired countless stories.
Speaking to Empire, Nolan said, “I think it’s the Emily Wilson translation that begins, ‘Tell me about a complicated man.’” He added, “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.”
The Odyssey makes history as the first film ever shot entirely in the large-format IMAX system. While other films have used IMAX for select sequences, Nolan’s adaptation is the first to use it for every shot — from massive landscapes to intimate close-ups.
Longtime collaborators Christopher Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema relied on newly developed IMAX technology to achieve this full-format production, something previously considered impossible. To prove the camera could handle extreme intimacy, van Hoytema screened for Nolan a giant IMAX close-up of a child reciting David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision.” The emotional clarity and presence of the shot stunned Nolan.
The film stars Damon as Odysseus, Holland as Telemachus, Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, Lupita Nyong’o as Calypso, Robert Pattinson as Hermes, Charlize Theron as Circe, along with Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Goth, Corey Hawkins, and Nick E. Tarabay in undisclosed roles.
The Odyssey will be a mythical action epic based on the ancient Greek poem by Homer. It tells the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his perilous journey home after the Trojan War.
Set in the 8th century BC, after the ten-year Trojan War, the Greek hero Odysseus travels from Troy to Ithaca via Africa and southern Europe. His journey lasts an additional ten years, during which he faces many dangers, and all of his crewmates are killed. In his absence, Odysseus is presumed dead, leaving his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, to deal with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope’s hand in marriage.
The film is produced by Nolan alongside his producing partner and wife, Emma Thomas, under their Syncopy banner. The project will have a $250 million budget, making it one of Nolan’s most expensive films ever.
The Odyssey will be released in theaters and IMAX in the United States on July 17, 2026, by Universal Pictures.
