Matt Damon's Odysseus is more of a Han Solo than a Luke Skywalker, according to Christopher Nolan.
The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus's long journey home from the Trojan war, which brings him up against fantastical threats like a cyclops, sirens, and a vicious whirlpool in the ocean.
"When I finished the film I was quite struck by that. Every film I do, I like to leave it with questions or unanswered themes that I might carry through to the next film," Nolan told The New York Times, when asked about parallels between Oppenheimer and Odysseus's characters. "There's a lot of ideas of leadership, of mixed motivations, the flaws of people, that idea of where the best of intentions can go horribly wrong. Odysseus is a very complex character – a trickster, somebody who's smart and wily. In Star Wars terms, it's Han Solo – but Han Solo is not the hero of Star Wars, it's Luke Skywalker."
Starring opposite Damon are Anne Hathaway as Odysseus's wife Penelope, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as one of Penelope's suitors Antinous, Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, Jon Bernthal as her husband Menelaus, and Benny Safdie as his brother and leader of the Greek army Agamemnon.
"Every location we would get there and I would just start laughing like, 'Who thought you should shoot a movie here?'" Damon has said of working with Nolan on the movie. "You know, we're shooting in Nestor's Cave in Greece. It's this incredible place but nobody's ever tried to shoot a film up there. So to see the rigging that they did to basically turn it into a natural sound stage, I don't know any other director who would try it."
The Odyssey arrives this July 17. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the most exciting upcoming movies to fill out your watchlist.
