The roles — or at least most of them — in the upcoming action-fantasy epic The Odyssey have finally been revealed.
Two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who directs The Odyssey, detailed the actors who will play characters in the film adaptation of the epic poem by ancient Greek writer Homer. The cast list, including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Lupita N’yongo, Zendaya and Travis Scott (in his first scripted film role), has been announced piecemeal over the last year, with Nolan filling in many gaps in a new TIME interview.
The film, which has a July 17 theatrical release, will be led by Damon as Greek hero Odysseus.
Shot entirely on IMAX, The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his ten year journey returning home from the Trojan War. Along the way, the hero comes face-to-face with everything from horny goddesses to Sirens to man-eating monsters — including one very angry Cyclops. Meanwhile, back at home, his wife Penelope, without her husband for two full decades (the Trojan War was also ten years long), is being pursued by a literal house full of suitors who are all trying to pressure her into marriage, assuming her husband is long dead.
Below is the main cast and their roles.
Matt Damon as Odysseus
The veteran actor plays the titular lead character of The Odyssey. This is Damon’s third film with Nolan.
Anne Hathaway as Penelope
Hathaway plays Penelope, the long-suffering wife of Odysseus, who the actress described as “full of fury” in the TIME interview.
Tom Holland as Telemachus
Tom Holland reconnects with his fiancée Zendaya outside of the Spider-Man franchise. It’s his first Nolan movie. Here, he plays Odysseus’ son.
Robert Pattinson as Antinous
Pattinson, who previously starred in Nolan’s 2020 movie Tenet, plays Antinous, one of Penelope’s main suitors.
Lupita N’yongo as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra
Academy Award winner Lupita N’yongo has two roles. She plays cause-of-the-Trojan-War Helen, as well as Helen’s sister Clytemnestra. The sisters are married to two brothers, Menelaus (Helen) and Agamemnon (Clytemnestra).
Jon Bernthal as Menelaus
Jon Bernthal plays Menelaus, King of Sparta and, as mentioned, the husband of Helen.
Charlize Theron as Calypso
Academy Award winner Charlize Theron plays a nymph who holds Odysseus captive for years and promises immortality.
Benny Safdie as Agamemnon
One-half of filmmaking duo the Safdie Brothers, Benny Safdie returns to the big screen as Agamemmon, brother of Menelaus and commander of the Greek side of the Trojans-versus-the-rest-of-the-Greeks Trojan War.
Travis Scott as a bard
Although cast in a minor role, the UTOPIA rapper has some screen time as a poet (probably the blind bard Demodocus), being handpicked by Nolan after Scott contributed “The Plan” on the Tenet soundtrack.
Additional cast members include Mia Goth, Elliott Page, Will Yun Lee and more. See The Odyssey trailer below.
