Video games news, releases, esports and culture — all the biggest gaming stories in one place.
‘There’s a Lot of Elevating It Because It’s Old’ — The Odyssey Director Christopher Nolan Set Out to ‘Do Away’ With ‘Cultural Prejudice’ Around How We View the Ancient World
Christopher Nolan has defended his creative approach to The Odyssey, telling Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy that he deliberately set out to strip away the "cultural prejudice" that leads audiences to view the ancient world in overly formal or elevated terms. The director argued that Homer's poem is in fact "earthy and grounded and accessible", and said he wanted the film to feel "very fresh for modern audiences" by dispensing with assumptions he considers illogical. The comments matter because they address a wave of online debate about the film's historical accuracy, particularly around its contemporary-sounding dialogue and costume design.
Much of the controversy has centred on a line in which Tom Holland's Telemachus, son of Matt Damon's Odysseus, tells Robert Pattinson's Antinous that "my dad is coming home", which some critics felt did not fit the setting; Holland countered that as a Greek character he would not have said "Father" anyway. Nolan said he had sought "language that has emotional not intellectual meaning", though he conceded he was "maybe being naïve" and that the choice "might bite me on the ass". He also defended the film's aesthetics, noting the production drew on archaeology of the Mycenaean period rather than Romantic-era paintings, and dismissed jokes that Agamemnon's black armour resembled Batman's by pointing to real Mycenaean blackened-bronze daggers. The film, set at the end of the Bronze Age, features a star cast including Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus and Zendaya as Athena.
Explained simply
Christopher Nolan is directing a film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic poem about the warrior Odysseus's long journey home after the Trojan War. The film stars Tom Holland as Telemachus (Odysseus's son), Matt Damon as Odysseus, and includes Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Jon Bernthal. Nolan has approached the material by presenting the ancient world in a contemporary, grounded style rather than the formal and elevated aesthetic typical of classical epics.
The director's creative choices have sparked online debate, particularly around the film's dialogue and visual design. Some critics questioned the contemporary-sounding language used by characters, with one example being where Holland's character says "my dad is coming home", arguing this does not match an ancient setting. The film's visual style, which prioritises archaeological authenticity over the formal conventions of period drama, has also generated discussion.
The controversy raises fundamental questions about the relationship between historical accuracy and artistic tradition. Formal, elevated presentations of ancient times have been shaped by centuries of artistic conventions rather than by historical evidence of how ancient people lived and spoke. The debate about The Odyssey exemplifies an ongoing tension in how modern filmmakers approach ancient stories and which elements of the past should be prioritised in telling them.