Christopher Nolan's retelling, after studying several translations, of ancient Greek poet Homer's epic (really long in this usage) poem Odyssey opened in the United States and United Kingdom on July 17 to a $264.1 million box office. Now a certified hit, the film sits at $346 million worldwide.
The poem, painstakingly written in the dactylic hexameter poetic structure, is a fable about a fictional king—scholars have found no evidence any of the characters were real people—who during a long journey encounters gods and mythical creatures.
Nolan's The Odyssey features a star-studded cast led by Matt Damon as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca (Ulysses in the Roman translation).
Also in major roles are actors Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o (portraying twin sisters Helen and Clytemnestra), Zendaya, John Leguizamo, Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Bill Irwin, Benny Safdie, and James Remar.
Early cast announcements for The Odyssey were met with backlash similar to when Disney announced they had chosen singer and actor Halle Bailey for the role of Princess Ariel in their live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.
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Some movie fans, mostly White men, took exception to the people of color (BIPOC) in the cast, claiming it was because they weren't Greek. But scholars have noted that records from Homer's era showed Greek cities enjoyed diverse populations due to robust trade with their neighbors throughout western Asia and northern Africa, as well as with seafaring nations from farther away.
Interestingly, Damon, who is of English, Scottish, Finnish, and Swedish ancestry yet plays one of the only verifiably ethnically Greek characters in Homer's poem, hasn't faced the backlash his BIPOC costars have for not being Greek. Nor have any of the other non-Greek White actors.
Also receiving hate online was Elliot Page, but not for his lack of Greek ancestry.
The objections centered on a trans man playing a fictional man of unspecified gender identity. But since transgender people have existed for as long as homo sapiens and Ancient Greek culture acknowledged the existence of transgender and intersex identities, any number of characters in Homer's work could be trans or intersex, but the author found it unnecessary to include such details.
One of the more prominent people having a major crisis about the casting of non-White actors and one trans actor in The Odyssey is South African vocal transphobe and White supremacist Elon Musk.
Despite the box office success and critical acclaim the film garnered—even Musk's fellow bigot Ben Shapiro praised the film after seeing it—the world's first trillionaire nepo baby crashed out hard on his social media platform X.
On July 21, Musk reposted a Grok Imagine AI created digital short from user Heavy Pulp with the caption:
"Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer"
Ironically, the linked AI version of The Odyssey featured characters who still weren't "historically accurate" ancient Greeks speaking lines delivered in dactylic hexameter in the Homeric Greek of the 8th or 7th century BC.
It also had a few other "oops!" moments.
It's almost as if Musk's version of "historically accurate" wasn't about the incorrect language used in the film or the lack of poetic structure or period accurate clothing materials and armor.
Musk's latest tantrum got roasted hard across social media.
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Getting a "historically accurate" depiction of people and places that never existed could be a major challenge.
In addition to none of the mortal characters being real people, Homer's original poem features encounters with the Greek gods Athena, Leucothea, Aeolus, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus, and Helios. Other mythical creatures and characters include Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, the Sirens, the herds of Helios, the Lotus Eaters, spirits of the dead, Circe, Laestrygonians, and the Cyclopes (plural for Cyclops).
But since this is the same crowd that crashed out over a mermaid with melanin...
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