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The first image of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey shows Matt Damon (and his new beard) as Odysseus
We're reserving judgement on the image until we've seen more, but we expect certain parts of the internet will have a lot to say about Matt Damon's costume in this first image.
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Christopher Nolan’s recent turn as a historical filmmaker has proven successful – both Dunkirk and Oppenheimer have garnered critical and commercial success. Nolan, who has become known for his epic films, is set to tackle one of the original epics with The Odyssey. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus from Homer’s epic Greek poem, this might be the most ambitious project of Nolan’s career.
The first image of Matt Damon as Odysseus has been released by Universal Studios and it… well, it doesn’t give a lot away about the movie. We see Damon in an approximation of ancient Greek armor standing in front of a mural. The picture was shared on social media in a post that gives July 17, 2026 as the release date for The Odyssey.
We’re reserving judgment on how the film looks based on a singular picture, partly because we don’t know when in the story this image is meant to take place. It took Odysseus over a decade to return home from the Trojan War. Seven of those years as a captive of Calypso, pining for home even as she tempted him with immortality. Matt Damon appears to be a younger Odysseus in this image, with the plume of his helmet still intact and his body not ravaged by time and the sea. Arguably, the centerpiece of the image is arguably the helmet, which has a more open face than was typical of Greek helmets of the time - presumably to show more of Matt Damon's face and make room for his beard.
The Odyssey is due out on July 17, 2026. Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the movie is based on the original epic poem by Homer about a man's attempts to return home from war while getting distracted at every island along the way.
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