They say Nolan traffics in secrets. This time, he's outdone himself—even his leaks have layers.
The teaser for “The Odyssey,” Nolan's long-whispered adaptation of Homer's epic, materialized (sort of) online a day early—a bit of digital flotsam Universal's lawyers couldn't quite net. You'd think after all these years, we'd be immune to his brand of showmanship. We're not. I'm not. Maybe it's the subject: gods, monsters, men on the verge of breaking. Maybe it's Matt Damon, looking haunted and half-frozen in a sea that's too dark, even for IMAX.
Let's break it down—or try to. The teaser opens with a shot of salt-gray water and a threadbare voiceover from Damon (Odysseus, and don't forget it). Zeus gets his name dropped—almost a dare. Horses run, sand twitches, and then—there's this massive, shattered black horse at the shoreline. Trojan memories? Or something new Nolan wants us to obsess over for months? Who knows. Hell, the horse might just be a piece of the ship, but in Nolan-land, everything's a totem.
Cut to Tom Holland (Telemachus), grilling Jon Bernthal for word of his father: “Who has a story of Odysseus? Is it you? Some say he's rich, some say he's poor.” Bernthal (perfectly rumpled) launches into a game of existential dodgeball, asking for stories, sifting through myth and rumor like a man looking for his car keys in a blackout.
Next up: our heroes descending into a cave—looming shadows, fear thick as oil. Bernthal's offhanded, “Some say he perished, some say he's imprisoned,” lands like a gut punch. And let's not pretend Holland's Telemachus isn't about to unravel. The camera lingers: anxiety, impatience, a kind of raw, youthful fury that only the truly lost can summon.
Nolan being Nolan, there's almost no comfort—just mood. Water. Wreckage. Wide shot: Damon, adrift, barely breathing. A man who's survived too much, maybe one wave away from giving in.
Officially? The real teaser drops tomorrow, July 2, attached to prints of “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” It'll play in two aspect ratios (2.39:1 and 1.85:1), depending on how retro your non-IMAX theater dares to be. Why two? Simple. Hoyte van Hoytema (D.P., saint, madman, magician) wants us to see this Odyssey through whatever window we choose. It's classic Nolan: control the reveal, but let a little chaos in through the cracks.
The teaser clocks in at 1:10—a mini-epic by the director's standards—and contains more actual footage than, say, that spinning top from “Inception” or the ticking clock in “Dunkirk.” But don't expect much more. The full trailer reportedly won't surface until December. Waiting is the point.
And this is all unfolding while the real movie is still deep in production—shooting in July, locations locked for August. Nolan's orchestrating chaos across hemispheres, budgets ballooning past the $250M mark, every frame getting the IMAX treatment. Ludwig Göransson is (probably) writing a score destined to echo in your bones.
The cast borders on ludicrous: Damon, Holland, Theron, Hathaway, Pattinson, Zendaya, Nyong'o, Bernthal, Benny Safdie, Mia Goth. A critical mass of talent. If you're not curious, check your pulse. And yet—Nolan's MO is withholding. He doesn't give away catharsis. He teases it, then pulls back. Not a mistake, not a marketing ploy—just faith that we'll follow him down whatever mythic, fractal rabbit hole he's dug this time.
Me? I gasped. Not proud of it. Doesn't matter. Nolan knows how to keep us wanting—confused, frustrated, ferociously alive to the possibility that the next shot, the next secret, will break through.
Will “The Odyssey” be his mythic masterpiece? Or a $250M fever dream? Who can say. That's the thing: in Nolan's world, mystery isn't a gimmick. It's the point.
“Odyssey” lands July 17, 2026. Until then—get used to staring at the horizon.
