Just like he did with Oppenheimer in 2023, Christopher Nolan is delivering a large cast of stacked talent on the 2026 movies schedule with The Odyssey. Jon Bernthal is among the many people who are joining Matt Damon is this cinematic adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, with the MCU’s Punisher actor playing Menelaus, the Greek king of Sparta. Although we still haven’t seen any footage of Bernthal yet in Nolan’s The Odyssey, someone has pointed out a fun coincidence between the source material and his body of work that has me even more eager to see the movie.
X user @awoodustin shared a screenshot of a portion of The Odyssey where Menelaus says, “Let me tell you.” This was a quote tweet to a compilation video of Jon Bernthal saying variations of that same kind of line in many of his movies and TV shows, as well as a few interviews. See for yourself:
Re-reading The Odyssey I found this line from Menelaus (Who Bernthal’s playing) and I freaked out https://t.co/8hiQrNBW3I pic.twitter.com/3SiPZv1XKmJanuary 30, 2026
I think it’s fair to say that Christopher Nolan had no idea about this when he selected Jon Bernthal to play Menelaus in The Odyssey, but it’s nonetheless hilarious it worked out that way. Now I’ll be paying close attention to if Bernthal actually says “Let me tell you” in the movie. If he does, then that compilation will need to be updated whenever The Odyssey is released on home media alongside scenes from
Faithfully adapting the original text rather than taking major creative liberties, The Odyssey chronicles Matt Damon’s Odysseus’ 10-year journey to return home to his wife, Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, and son, Tom Holland’s Telemachus, after fighting in the Trojan War for that same amount of time. Menelaus fought in that same conflict, and while he has a bigger role in the preceding Iliad, Jon Bernthal should get a decent amount of screen time portraying the character in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation.
Other actors appearing in the summer blockbuster include Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel and Mia Goth, but again, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. It’s also worth noting that we’ll be getting a double dose of Jon Bernthal, Tom Holland and Zendaya come July. Two week after The Odyssey’s arrival on the 17th of that month, all three will star in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with this marking the first time that Bernthal has played The Punisher in a movie.
Between those two movies, the Disney+ Punisher special and his Netflix subscription-exclusive limited series His & Hers that can be watched now, 2026 is a big year for Jon Bernthal. The question now is, how much will we hear of him telling someone something. Let’s loop back at the beginning of 2027 to compare notes.
