The most expensive and ambitious film of the summer of 2026, ‘The Odyssey’ by Christopher Nolanhas generated a controversy that already sounds old, but that the conservative factions of the Internet never tire of recovering again and again. The African-American Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and, possibly, the trans actor Elliot Page as the Ghost of Achilles are two casting choices that have defenders of fidelity to the original text infuriated.
Delivery and delivery. The first film of Nolan’s career shot entirely on 70mm IMAX cameras hits theaters on July 17. Nolan, very cleverly, announced his casting practically in full (Matt Damon is Odysseus, Anne Hathaway is Penelope, Tom Holland is Telemachus, Zendaya is Athena, Charlize Theron is Calypso, Jon Bernthal is Menelaus, Benny Safdie is Agamemnon and Robert Pattinson is Antinous) and left out two additions that he knew would make a certain part of the internet up in arms. Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy has been announced later, and Elliot Page as the Ghost of Achilles has not yet been officially confirmed.
The rich cry too. The negative reaction came, in large part, from X, with Elon Musk as the main amplifier. The owner of the platform accused Nolan of having chosen these actors to satisfy the diversity quotas of the Hollywood Academy, summarizing his thesis with the phrase “He wants the awards“(He wants the prizes). Kevin Sorbo, known for playing Hercules in the 1990s television series (not exactly the best example of adapting classic myths faithful to the sources) joined the criticism. According to has been countedare recurring themes in Musk’s speech, who, for example, published content alluding to racial theories or anti-immigration conspiracies on 26 of the 31 days of January 2026.
We have already seen it. We have seen this reaction on numerous occasions, always from the same sector of the public, and always criticizing casting choices to make it diverse. Disney has suffered it with the latest versions of ‘Snow White’ and ‘The Little Mermaid‘, he made a considerable mess with ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘ and his racialized elves. And the Star Wars universe has been enduring these criticisms since the premiere of ‘The Force Awakens’.
Troy, bad example. The film that Musk and a good part of his followers invoke as a counterpoint is ‘Troy’, Wolfgang Petersen’s peplum starring Brad Pitt that was released in 2004. There were those who did direct comparisons between Petersen’s version and Nolan’s. But there are countless problems here. ‘Troy’ adapts ‘The Iliad’, not ‘The Odyssey’, and does so very loosely: Patroclus becomes Achilles’ cousin rather than his companion; Briseis kills Agamemnon, destroying the ‘Oresteia’ in the process; Andromache and Astyanax flee through a system of tunnels; compresses a ten-year war into a few weeks; and completely eliminates the Olympian gods.
About the Oscars. The most widespread accusation is that Nolan is diversifying the cast to meet the Academy representation and inclusion standardsapproved in 2020 and effective from 2024. The reasoning seems solid at first glance. But the Academy system works differently: a film has to meet two of four possible standards. Standard A refers to the cast, but standards B, C and D cover the creative team, distributor training programs and the composition of the marketing teams. It is perfectly possible to meet the criteria with Caucasian actors.
And there is one’s ownOppenheimer‘ (entirely white cast, seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director) to prove it. How did he get it? Its costume designer, production director, editor and makeup manager were women; Universal, the distributor, has scholarship programs and marketing managers from underrepresented groups, including a woman as president (Donna Langley) and a black man as head of domestic marketing (Dwight Caines). That accusation falls by itself.
Nolan’s response. The director, without needing to mention Musk’s tears, alluded to the controversy in an interview. Nolan defended the historical rigor of the production (including the blackened Mycenaean bronze of the armor, which some users had compared to Batman’s suit) and justified the casting of rapper Travis Scott as an aedo with an argument of artistic coherence: he wanted to emphasize that ‘The Odyssey’ was transmitted as oral poetry, and that rap is the contemporary equivalent of that tradition. The intention, according to the director, is not that the public agrees with each decision, but rather that they do not think that the material has been taken lightly.
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