Charlize Theron is a bewitching Circe in Odyssey trailer

[Karlston]

“You’re a man who needs to control his fate. But you cannot control this.”

Credit: Universal Pictures

 

 

Over the last year, Christopher Nolan and Universal Pictures have been trickling out sneak peeks and teasers for Nolan’s forthcoming film version of The Odyssey, adapting Homer’s classic poem. The studio recently dropped a new two-and-a-half-minute trailer stuffed with the glorious visuals, high emotions, and soaring music befitting such an epic saga.

 

As previously reported, most of us read some version of The Odyssey in high school, so we’re familiar with the story: Odysseus, legendary Greek king of Ithaca, begins the long journey home after 10 years of fighting in the Trojan War. But the journey does not go smoothly, as Odysseus and his men encounter the cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens, and an enchantress named Circe, among other obstacles. Meanwhile, his long-suffering wife, Penelope, is warding off hundreds of suitors eager to usurp Odysseus’ position.

 

Nolan loves an epic tale and compared Homer’s Odyssey to today’s superhero movies during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Even comic book culture, whether you’re talking about Marvel or DC or all the rest, a lot of it comes pretty directly from the Homeric epics,” Nolan told Colbert. “The thing about Homer is, nobody knows if that was a person. Homer, in a way, is the sort of George Lucas of his time.”

 

Matt Damon stars as the wandering Ithacan king. The cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son, Telemachus; Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s many suitors; Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king, Menelaus; Benny Safdie as the Achaean commander during the Trojan War, Agamemnon; John Leguizamo as Odysseus’ faithful servant, Eumaeus; Himesh Patel as his second-in-command, Eurylochus; Will Yun Lee and Jimmy Gonzales as crew members; and Mia Goth as Penelope’s maid Melantho. We also have Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Lupita Nyong’o in an as-yet-undisclosed role.

 

We got our first look at stills of Damon’s Odysseus in February 2025 (which irked historical purists because Damon was wearing a Corinthian helmet with a red plume), an extended teaser last July, and a full-length trailer in December. Those who went to see IMAX screenings of major films that same month were treated to six minutes of footage from the film—a flashback sequence depicting Odysseus’ use of the Trojan Horse to win the war. Another sneak peek aired in January during the NFL playoffs, featuring rapper Travis Scott, Holland, and Bernthal.

 

This latest trailer gives us our first glimpse of Theron’s Circe and Pattinson’s conniving Antinous, the latter intent on wooing Penelope and ruling over Ithaca in Odysseus’ stead, as well as snidely taunting Telemachus for his daddy issues. The infamous cyclops briefly appears, as well as footage of Odysseus and his men battling the cannibalistic race of giants known as Laestrygonians and navigating around the treacherous whirlpool Charybdis. And was that our hero’s dog, Argos, flitting by?

 

The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, 2026.

 

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Posted Wednesday 6 May 2026 at 7:30 am AEST (my time).

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