‘The Odyssey’ Stuns CinemaCon With Intense Trojan Horse Attack Footage; Christopher Nolan Says Film Was an “Absolute Nightmare to Film — in All the Right Ways”
Universal Pictures
Universal unveils extended first look at Christopher Nolan’s epic starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland, as the filmmaker pushes IMAX filmmaking to a new scale.
Christopher Nolan returned to CinemaCon in Las Vegas with The Odyssey, his ambitious historical epic for Universal, unveiling an extended footage presentation that immediately drew strong reactions from theater owners and exhibitors in attendance.
The filmmaker, who has become one of Hollywood’s most consistent theatrical advocates, received a standing ovation upon taking the stage at the Colosseum, where he introduced new material from the film and spoke about adapting Homer’s ancient Greek epic for modern audiences. Nolan described the story not simply as a story, but as the story, noting its 3,000-year cultural endurance.
The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, and follows his long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War. Nolan framed the narrative as a foundational myth about memory, identity, and survival, anchored by a structure that moves between war, mythological encounters, and psychological disorientation.
Footage shown at CinemaCon opened with Damon’s Odysseus washed ashore and physically worn down, speaking to Charlize Theron’s Calypso and admitting he cannot remember his life before Troy. The sequence establishes a disoriented protagonist attempting to reconstruct his identity while already deep into mythic consequence.
A major portion of the footage focused on the Trojan Horse sequence, which Nolan described as a central set piece in the film. The scene depicts the Greeks hauling the massive wooden structure ashore as tension builds around whether it conceals soldiers inside. As the horse is inspected by the Trojans, blades pierce the structure, with one moment showing a sword slicing into a hidden soldier, heightening the suspense of the infiltration strategy.
The presentation also included large-scale battle imagery, including nighttime naval combat, storm sequences at sea, and Odysseus leading his men through extreme conditions as they attempt to survive their journey home. Nolan’s staging emphasizes physical scale and environmental danger, consistent with his recent focus on immersive, large-format filmmaking.
The footage concluded with a brief glimpse of the Cyclops Polyphemus, with Odysseus and his crew confronting the mythological figure, further reinforcing the film’s blend of grounded war storytelling and classical mythology.
The ensemble cast includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as Telemachus, alongside Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, and Himesh Patel. Nolan joked during the presentation that the cast was too large to physically bring to CinemaCon, noting that assembling them all in one place would have been structurally impossible.
Speaking about the production, Nolan described The Odyssey as one of the most logistically challenging films of his career, citing international shoots across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland. He emphasized that the production was intentionally difficult, calling it “an absolute nightmare to film — in all the right ways,” while praising the cast and crew for executing the vision under extreme conditions.
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Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, was singled out by Nolan as a key creative partner on the project, with the director highlighting the physical demands of the role, which includes extensive on-location shooting at sea, in mountains, and in extreme weather environments.
Nolan also confirmed that The Odyssey is the first feature film shot entirely using IMAX cameras, marking a major technical milestone in his ongoing partnership with the format. He described the achievement as a long-held ambition dating back to his early work on The Dark Knight, noting that previous films had only partially utilized IMAX due to technical limitations at the time.
The director reiterated his long-standing commitment to theatrical exhibition, referencing the box office impact of Oppenheimer, where IMAX screenings accounted for a significant portion of total revenue and contributed to sold-out premium-format engagements across major markets.
The Odyssey is currently scheduled for theatrical release on July 17, 2026.
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