In depicting Odysseus, the titular hero of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, Matt Damon will have to blind Cyclops, take on a witch who turns his men into pigs, and resist the enchanting beckons of alluring bird-women—none of which is featured in the first official full-length trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Rather, viewers are treated to the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer director’s signature grandiose shots of Damon as the cunning Greek king at several points on his decade-long journey back from Troy to Ithaca. “After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home,” Odysseus narrates. “Not even me.”
There are also shots of several other star cast members, including Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, and Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope’s son. The only other dialogue comes at the end of the trailer, as Penelope tells Odysseus, “Promise me you will come back,” to which he responds, “What if I can’t?”
The massive ensemble cast also features Zendaya as the tactical goddess Athena, Charlize Theron as the enchanting sorceress Circe, Robert Pattinson as the villainous suitor Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, Benny Safdie as Greek commander Agamemnon, Jon Bernthal as Spartan king Menelaus, and John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s loyal swineherd.
As People points out, this technically isn’t the first look at The Odyssey. Universal Pictures previously screened a teaser exclusively in theaters featuring narration from other characters. “I have to find out what happened to my father. When did you last see him?” Telemachus asks Menelaus in that teaser trailer.
Menelaus replies, “Some say he’s rich. Some say he’s poor. Some say he perished. Some say he’s imprisoned. What say you?” “Imprisoned?” asks Telemachus, to which Bernthal’s character responds, “What kind of prison can hold a man like that?” Watch the first full-length trailer below forThe Odyssey, which opens in theaters on July 17, 2026.
