Universal Pictures has released a new featurette for The Odyssey, taking viewers behind the scenes of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming mythic epic.
The “On The Set of The Odyssey” video shifts the focus away from pure trailer spectacle and toward the physical scale of the production itself. Instead of simply teasing monsters, storms and ancient warfare, the featurette highlights the making of the film: real locations, enormous practical ambition and Nolan’s continued commitment to shooting on film at the largest possible scale.
The Odyssey adapts Homer’s foundational epic about Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, as he struggles to return home after the Trojan War. The journey becomes a long and dangerous test of endurance, loyalty and survival, filled with divine forces, mythical threats and the emotional pull of Penelope and Ithaca waiting at the end of the voyage.
Matt Damon leads the film as Odysseus, with Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron also starring. The featurette places the cast inside a production that looks deliberately old-fashioned in the best possible sense: huge environments, demanding locations and the sense that the actors are being dropped into a world that has to be physically endured, not just imagined against a green screen.
That approach is central to the film’s appeal. Nolan has long treated scale as something cinematic rather than merely expensive, and The Odyssey appears to push that philosophy even further. Universal describes the film as a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand-new IMAX film technology, bringing Homer’s saga to IMAX film screens for the first time.
For audiences interested in the craft behind big-screen filmmaking, this featurette is a strong reminder that The Odyssey is being sold as an event movie in the most traditional sense. It is not only about adapting a famous story. It is about making that journey feel vast, dangerous and physically real.
The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17, 2026.
Video source: Universal Pictures
