Christopher Nolan celebrates ‘The Odyssey’ for its ‘weight and credibility’

Christopher Nolan is opening up about the admirable scale of The Odyssey, his first release since the best picture winner, Oppenheimer.

Accompanying the upcoming historical epic’s first look for Empire magazine, Nolan told the publication in his interview, “I mean, it truly contains all stories.”

“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before,” he added. “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.”

Further recounting his four-month experience filming the project out on the sea as “vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent”, the Oscar winner explained, “We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”

The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan, includes an ensemble cast which is led by Matt Damon. Actors like Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and several others are part of the star-studded lineup. The film is set to release in theatres on July 17, 2026.