• Zendaya says she “could have cried” watching fiancé Tom Holland film The Odyssey, though they share no scenes together
• Matt Damon reveals Christopher Nolan called Zendaya’s performance “perfect” — the highest praise he’s ever heard Nolan give
• Damon and Holland spent the rest of production playfully complaining that neither of them ever came close to that level of praise
• Zendaya plays the goddess Athena while juggling Euphoria Season 3 and Dune: Part Three simultaneously
• The Odyssey opens in theaters July 17, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day following on July 31

Zendaya didn’t have a single scene with Tom Holland in The Odyssey — but she was still watching him closely. And what she saw nearly brought her to tears.

“I could have cried, I was so proud,” the actress told ELLE of watching Holland on set of Christopher Nolan’s sweeping adaptation of Homer’s epic. It’s a sweet window into a relationship that’s been playing out in real time for nearly a decade — two people who fell in love on a Marvel set, now watching each other grow into something bigger.

“And then Spider-Man was a dream; I get to go to work every day with my best friend, the person that I love,” she added. “We bring our dogs to work; it’s like a family affair. We grew up on those movies! It’s like coming home.”

Holland and Zendaya first met during a 2016 chemistry read for Spider-Man: Homecoming, where he was cast as Peter Parker and she as Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson. They went public as a couple in July 2021, got engaged in late 2024, and if you believe Zendaya’s longtime stylist Law Roach — they may have already quietly gotten married. (In March, Zendaya herself fueled the speculation by telling French outlet Views that a “perfect marriage” doesn’t exist.)

The Only Person Who Got a ‘Perfect’ From Christopher Nolan

Here’s the thing about working with Christopher Nolan: the man is not handing out gold stars. Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus in the film, explained the dynamic with characteristic bluntness.

“Chris is known for being very circumspect. So when you do a take, it’s not like he says, ‘That was great.’ He’ll go, ‘Yep, good. Okay.’ And that is the equivalent of the greatest praise you could ever get,” Damon told ELLE. “Zendaya, on the other hand — there were takes where she did one thing, she did this amazing scene, and he said, ‘Cut.’ And then he went, ‘Perfect.'”

The fallout was immediate and, honestly, hilarious.

“And literally, Tom [Holland] and I were obsessed with this. She got a ‘perfect’? I’ve never even gotten a ‘great.’ She got a ‘perfect’? He and I bitched about it for the entire rest of the film. ‘Did you get anything today?’ ‘No, I got a ‘good — moving on.’ ‘Yeah, me too.'”

Damon didn’t hold it against her for long. “So it was this amazing ability she had to come in and really put herself in there and blow everybody away, and then just go back to shooting ‘Euphoria,'” he said.

That detail — going back to shoot Euphoria — is not a throwaway line. Zendaya was running three major productions at once. In her own ELLE cover story interview, she described the logistical reality of it all: “I remember being on set for Euphoria; it was a night shoot at a ranch. I was so tired, but I was also learning my Chakobsa lines for Dune. And then I started writing out my lines to memorize for that quick turnaround trip I was going to make to Iceland for The Odyssey.”

She paused on what was really at stake. “It’s not like I have a lot of lines in The Odyssey, but I was working with Christopher Nolan! The most embarrassing thing in life would be messing up my lines, which did happen once.”

Nolan, for his part, seemed unbothered by any stumbles. “We would be in the maddest, craziest situations, just all of us fighting the elements, tearing our hair out, all these things going on, and she would sort of parachute in from her other job with this sense of true grace and poise,” he said. “I mean, she’s literally playing a goddess; it’s a tall order. She’s a true movie star, but also an incredible actor.”

The Women at the Heart of The Odyssey

Zendaya plays Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, serving as guide and protector to Damon’s Odysseus throughout his journey. It’s a role without a ton of screen time — but clearly one that left a mark on everyone who witnessed it being filmed.

She’s one of four iconic actresses anchoring Nolan’s vision of the women who drive Homer’s story forward. Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, the fiercely loyal queen of Ithaca who spends 20 years fending off over a hundred suitors while her husband is away. “We think about Penelope as a model of patience,” Hathaway said. “But I was interested in the raw edge of her. I was interested in the fury, the emotion, and the passion that she would have had to ride for him for those 20 years.” It’s Hathaway’s third collaboration with Nolan, after The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar, and Nolan noted a visible shift in her work: “There’s a maturity to her performances now… Her work has a sense of quiet calm to it that’s really remarkable.”

Lupita Nyong’o takes on a fascinating dual role — both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra — while Charlize Theron plays Calypso, the sea nymph who holds Odysseus captive for seven years. Theron used the character to say something larger: “Even though she’s a goddess, she is really longing for connection… there’s something to be said about women living their lives today in a powerful manner, and yet a lot of our rights are being taken away every single day.”

The four women cover ELLE’s summer 2026 issue, and the film has already sold out multiple opening IMAX 70mm screenings — a full year before its release.

The Odyssey opens July 17. Two weeks later, Holland and Zendaya will be back together on screen where it all started — Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters July 31. Two movies, one summer, one couple. Not a bad coming home.

The post Zendaya ‘Could Have Cried’ Watching Tom Holland on The Odyssey Set appeared first on Cream.

• Alec Baldwin posted a photo of Lupita Nyong’o on Instagram telling Elon Musk “she IS the most beautiful woman in the world”
• Musk agreed with conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s claim that Nyong’o was the wrong casting choice for Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey
• Nolan confirmed Nyong’o will play both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra in a recent Time magazine profile
• Whoopi Goldberg also defended Nyong’o on The View, telling Musk to “look in a mirror” before commenting on anyone’s looks
• The Odyssey opens in theaters July 17, 2026, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and Robert Pattinson

Alec Baldwin has had enough of Elon Musk’s commentary on Christopher Nolan’s casting choices — and he made it very clear on Instagram.

After Musk repeatedly criticized the decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey, Baldwin fired back with a photo of the Oscar-winning actress and a pointed message: “Dear Elon… but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world…Alec.” His wife, Hilaria Baldwin, co-signed immediately, dropping fire and heart emojis in the comments.

Simple. Direct. And for Nyong’o’s defenders, completely satisfying.

How This All Started

The controversy kicked into high gear after conservative commentator Matt Walsh posted on X, writing that “not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world'” and accusing Nolan of casting her only to avoid accusations of racism. He called the director “technically talented but a coward.”

Musk responded to Walsh’s post with a single word: “True.” He’d also previously written that Nolan “has lost his integrity” by casting Nyong’o in the role. And in a separate post responding to someone accusing Nolan of “race swapping,” Musk suggested the director “wants all the awards” — a dig at the Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards for Best Picture eligibility.

It’s a line of attack that falls apart pretty quickly when you consider that Nolan’s last film, Oppenheimer, featured an almost entirely white cast and still won Best Picture and Best Director in 2024, earning nearly $1 billion at the global box office in the process. The film met the Academy’s diversity requirements through its production staff, not its on-screen cast.

Musk’s fixation on the film has been relentless. According to reporting from The Daily Beast, he promoted more than two dozen X posts criticizing The Odyssey — at least 15 of them in a single Friday alone — and has been accused of using the platform’s algorithm to boost his own posts on the subject. He also turned his attention to former Academy president David Rubin, the man who oversaw the implementation of the inclusion standards, writing an expletive-filled attack and telling followers to boo Rubin on sight.

Walsh returned to the subject the following day, arguing that if a white actress like Sydney Sweeney had been cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa” in a film set on that continent, there would be outrage. Musk called it “such hypocrisy in Hollywood.”

What Nolan Actually Confirmed

Nyong’o has been attached to The Odyssey since The Hollywood Reporter first reported her involvement back in November 2024, but her exact role remained unconfirmed for months — she hasn’t appeared in either of the film’s two released trailers. That changed with a Time magazine profile published May 12, in which Nolan confirmed she’ll play not one but two roles: Helen of Troy and Helen’s sister Clytemnestra.

In Homer’s epics, Helen is the woman whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris ignited the Trojan War — “the face that launched a thousand ships.” She appears in The Odyssey in a scene with Telemachus, the character Tom Holland plays in Nolan’s film. Clytemnestra, meanwhile, is married to Agamemnon — here played by Benny Safdie — the Greek commander whose soldiers include Matt Damon’s Odysseus.

As for the claim that Helen of Troy was definitively white: there is no historical evidence that any of the characters in Homer’s epics actually existed at all. In ancient Greek mythology, Helen’s race is never explicitly addressed, though she is described as having golden hair. The argument that Nyong’o’s casting is “historically inaccurate” doesn’t have much of a foundation to stand on.

Nolan himself addressed the backlash in the Time interview, saying of critics: “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything.”

The Defense Keeps Coming

Baldwin isn’t alone. Whoopi Goldberg went after Musk directly on The View back in February, pointing out that Nyong’o “is also considered one of the world’s most beautiful women.” She didn’t stop there. “I would suggest looking in a mirror if you have any concerns about people’s looks,” Goldberg told Musk on air. “I don’t know why you feel like you need to speak on this.”

And it’s worth remembering: Lupita Nyong’o was named People‘s Most Beautiful Woman in the World — a title that carries its own weight in this particular argument.

The full cast Nolan has assembled for The Odyssey is genuinely staggering: Damon as Odysseus, Holland as Telemachus, Zendaya as Athena, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Elliot Page as Achilles, Mia Goth, and John Leguizamo. The film hits theaters on July 17, 2026.

Nolan’s bet is on the movie itself doing the talking. Based on the response to his trailers — and the A-list lineup he’s assembled — a lot of people are already planning to show up and see it for themselves.

The post Alec Baldwin Defends Lupita Nyong’o After Elon Musk Slams Odyssey Casting appeared first on Cream.

• Elon Musk has been on a days-long X rampage attacking Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey over its diverse casting choices
• Musk agreed with conservative commentator Matt Walsh that Nolan is “technically talented but a coward” for casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy
• Musk’s central argument — that Nolan is chasing Oscar eligibility through diverse casting — is factually inaccurate, as his own film Oppenheimer won Best Picture under the same rules with a nearly all-white cast
• Nolan has defended his choices in a new Time interview, comparing his approach to the same creative rigor he brought to Interstellar
• The Odyssey, which carries a $250 million budget, has already sold out IMAX screenings a year in advance and is projected to be one of the summer’s biggest hits

Elon Musk has found his new culture war battlefield, and it’s ancient Greece. The world’s richest man has spent the better part of this week flooding X with posts attacking Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey — specifically targeting the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy — and showing absolutely no signs of letting up.

The flashpoint came when a new Time magazine cover story on Nolan confirmed what had been circulating as rumor for months: Nyong’o, the Oscar-winning actress best known for 12 Years a Slave and the Black Panther franchise, would not only be playing Helen of Troy — described in Homer’s epic as “the face that launched a thousand ships” — but also her sister Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, in a dual role. That was apparently all the fuel Musk needed.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh fired the opening shot on X, writing: “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented but a coward.”

Musk’s reply was two words: “True.”

It escalated from there. Over the following days, Musk declared “Shame on Chris Nolan for desecrating Homer! He will never live it down.” He agreed with a post claiming Nolan is “racist against the Greek people and their cultural heritage.” He amplified posts suggesting The Odyssey is part of a left-wing plan to “destroy Western Civilization.” He also retweeted posts mocking actor Elliot Page — who has worked with Nolan before on Inception and is rumored (though not confirmed) to have a role in the film — including an AI-generated image of Page in Greek warrior attire struggling to open a pickle jar. And when Walsh doubled down Wednesday, arguing that Hollywood would never cast a white actress as “the most beautiful woman in Africa” — floating Sydney Sweeney as his hypothetical example — Musk agreed again: “Absolutely true. Such hypocrisy in Hollywood.”

By Friday, Musk had added one more post: “Who specifically is the asshole who added DEI lies to Academy Awards eligibility instead of it just being about making the best movie?”

The Oscar Argument That Doesn’t Hold Up

This is where Musk’s central thesis starts to fall apart — badly.

His core argument is that Nolan cast diversely in order to meet the Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards for Best Picture eligibility. The problem? Those rules, established by the Academy in 2020, went into effect for films competing at the 2024 Oscars — meaning Oppenheimer, Nolan’s previous film, was subject to the exact same standards. That film had an almost entirely white cast and still won Best Picture and Best Director. Why? Because a film doesn’t have to cast diversely to qualify. It can meet the standards through crew composition, apprenticeship programs, audience development, executive representation, or a combination of any of the above. A film must satisfy just two of four broad criteria. Musk’s posts amplified a version of the rules that claimed casting diversity was mandatory — that’s simply not accurate.

In other words: Nolan’s Oppenheimer proves his own point wrong.

The broader criticism — that casting a Black actress as a mythological Greek figure is historically inaccurate — also runs into some obvious problems. Helen of Troy is a mythological character. Her father, in the myth, is Zeus in the form of a swan. There is no historical record of Helen of Troy. There is no DNA sample. The ancient Mediterranean world was, by the accounts of actual historians, genuinely multiethnic. As Sunny Hostin noted during a segment on The View this week, historians have long explored how Greek mythology was shaped by influences from ancient Egypt and North Africa.

Whoopi Goldberg, for her part, had a more direct suggestion for anyone bothered by the casting: don’t watch it.

What Nolan Actually Said

Nolan, who famously doesn’t carry a smartphone and keeps his work computer offline, has been characteristically unbothered — or at least performing unbothered very well. In his Time interview, he addressed the controversy around his decision to cast rapper Travis Scott as a Greek bard, defending it as a genuine artistic choice rather than a stunt to lure younger viewers.

“I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan said.

He also drew a direct parallel between his approach to The Odyssey and the methodology he used on Interstellar — rigorously researching the world he was building and then making the most informed creative choices he could. “For Interstellar, you’re looking at, ‘What is the best speculation of the future?’ When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s actually the same thing. What is the best speculation, and how can I use that to create a world?” he told Time. “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything. We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar.”

On the question of fan response and repeating certain creative tropes — Nolan is well aware he makes a lot of movies about brilliant men trying to get home to their families — the director was philosophical. “You have to be comfortable with repeating yourself, if it’s right for the project,” he said. “If you’re paying too much attention to what people are pointing out in your work, you’d be paralyzed.”

The Time journalist who interviewed him noted that even without a smartphone, “the internet has found him.”

The Movie Itself

The Odyssey is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious films in recent memory regardless of the noise surrounding it. Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer — which made nearly $1 billion in 2023 and swept the Academy Awards — carries a reported $250 million budget, making it the most expensive film of his career. It was shot across multiple countries, including Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland, though the production also drew some controversy for filming in the disputed Western Sahara territory occupied by Morocco.

The ensemble cast is stacked: Matt Damon leads as Odysseus, with Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Zendaya as Athena, and Charlize Theron as Calypso. The trailer, which has already generated its own separate wave of discourse — The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd wrote that “everybody sounds like they’re from Ohio” — has done nothing to dampen anticipation. IMAX screenings have reportedly sold out a year in advance. Deadline’s summer box office preview projects it as one of the season’s top-grossing films.

A recent promotional campaign featured LeBron James and his son drawing parallels to Odysseus and Telemachus, with James narrating over footage from the film while dribbling a basketball — which, depending on your tolerance for anachronism, is either inspired or absolutely unhinged. The internet, predictably, split down the middle.

Lupita Nyong’o Doesn’t Need Anyone’s Defense — But She’s Getting It Anyway

Nyong’o herself hasn’t publicly responded to Musk’s posts. But the actress — a Yale School of Drama graduate who won her Oscar for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, delivered one of the most haunting performances of the last decade in Jordan Peele’s Us, and headlined A Quiet Place: Day One — has no shortage of people in her corner.

The pushback online has been swift and pointed. Many have noted the obvious: that Lupita Nyong’o is, by any reasonable measure, one of the most beautiful and talented actresses working today, and that the outrage over her playing a fictional mythological figure whose own parentage in the source material involves a god disguised as a swan is, at minimum, an odd hill to plant a flag on.

Kevin Sorbo — who played Hercules in the 1990s TV series, itself a show not exactly known for its rigorous historical fidelity — apparently weighed in against Nyong’o’s casting, and was quickly reminded of that fact by pretty much everyone on the internet.

Musk, for his part, has been doing this since January. That’s when he first posted that “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity” in response to early rumors about Nyong’o’s casting. The Time confirmation just gave him a fresh reason to go louder. A recent study found that Musk had tweeted about race approximately 850 times in recent months. This week’s posts fit the pattern.

The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17. Whatever Musk posts between now and then, the IMAX seats are already gone.

The post Elon Musk’s Odyssey Crusade: The Facts vs. The Rant appeared first on Cream.

• Elon Musk has spent days on X attacking Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey over its diverse casting, calling it Oscar-chasing and accusing Nolan of “desecrating Homer”
• Lupita Nyong’o is confirmed to play Helen of Troy — and her sister Clytemnestra — in the $250 million epic, out July 17
• Musk amplified misinformation about the Academy’s diversity standards, which are far broader than he implied
• Nolan has pushed back calmly, defending his choices in a lengthy Time profile while making clear he won’t be paralyzed by the noise
• Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and much of social media have fired back at Musk’s commentary

Elon Musk has a lot of opinions about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. None of them are new. But this week, they reached a new pitch — a days-long campaign on X that has included amplifying misinformation, agreeing with racist commentary, and personally attacking one of the most acclaimed directors working today.

It started in earnest after a sweeping Time magazine profile of Nolan confirmed what had previously been rumored: Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o will play Helen of Troy in the film — described in Homer’s epic as the most beautiful woman in the world — and, in a twist, also play Helen’s sister Clytemnestra. The dual casting is one of several bold choices Nolan has made in adapting the ancient poem, which hits theaters July 17 with a reported $250 million budget, making it the most expensive film of his career.

For Musk, the confirmation was fuel. He had already weighed in back in January, writing that “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity” when the casting was still a rumor. This week he went further.

What Musk Actually Said

The posts came fast. Musk replied “True” to Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh’s claim that “not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world,'” and that Nolan is “technically talented but a coward.” When Walsh escalated — arguing that if Sydney Sweeney were cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa,” people would “literally riot” — Musk chimed in again: “Absolutely true. Such hypocrisy in Hollywood.”

He also replied “True” to a post accusing Nolan of being “racist against the Greek people and their cultural heritage.” He reposted a tweet suggesting Nolan is stomping on Homer’s grave. On Thursday, he endorsed a post claiming The Odyssey is part of a left-wing plan to “destroy Western Civilization.” And on Friday, he attacked Nolan directly: “Shame on Chris Nolan for desecrating Homer! He will never live it down.”

Musk also mocked Elliot Page, who is rumored — though not confirmed — to be playing Achilles’ Ghost in the film. Musk reacted to an AI-generated image of Page in Greek warrior attire struggling to open a pickle jar, amplifying transphobic content to his 240 million followers. Page, who worked with Nolan previously on Inception, came out as transgender in 2020.

The throughline of Musk’s argument was that Nolan cast Nyong’o to chase awards. “He wants the awards,” Musk wrote, responding to a user who claimed the Academy Awards requires diverse on-screen casting for Best Picture eligibility.

The Oscar Rules Are Not What Musk Claimed

That claim is where the misinformation comes in — and it matters.

To be eligible for Best Picture, films must meet two of four Academy diversity standards — and the criteria are far more flexible than Musk’s posts implied. The first standard can be met through on-screen representation, but it can also be satisfied if the film’s main theme centers on an underrepresented group. The second can be met by having six crew members (not just department heads) from underrepresented groups, or by having 30% of the overall crew qualify. The third standard involves studio internship and training programs. The fourth covers diversity in a film’s marketing, publicity, or distribution teams.

In other words: a film could qualify for Best Picture without changing a single casting decision. The post Musk amplified stripped all of that nuance away — and he pushed it to nearly a quarter billion followers.

Nolan’s Response: Calm, Thorough, and Completely Unbothered

Nolan, characteristically, is not playing defense on social media. He doesn’t carry a smartphone. But in his Time interview, he addressed the criticism with a kind of unhurried confidence that suggests he’s thought through every decision and isn’t losing sleep over X.

On the Travis Scott casting — Scott plays a bard — Nolan was direct: “I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.” On the armor controversy (critics have taken issue with Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon wearing dark, shiny plating), Nolan explained that blackened bronze was historically plausible and served a visual storytelling purpose. “With Agamemnon, Ellen [Mirojnick], our costume designer, is trying to communicate how elevated he is relative to everyone else. You do that through materials that would be very expensive.”

He compared his research process to Interstellar: “For Interstellar, you’re looking at, ‘What is the best speculation of the future?’ When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s actually the same thing. ‘What is the best speculation and how can I use that to create a world?'” He added: “Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything. We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar. But you just don’t want people to think that you took it on frivolously.”

On the broader pressure of internet scrutiny, Nolan was equally measured: “You have to be comfortable with repeating yourself, if it’s right for the project. If you’re paying too much attention to what people are pointing out in your work, you’d be paralyzed.”

Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, echoed the director’s confidence. “He’s very faithful to Homer because that’s not somebody you rewrite. But thematically, what he looked at was really interesting,” Damon said. The Time profile also revealed that this is the first feature-length film shot entirely on IMAX — a technical achievement that required, among other things, inventing a special camera casing to muffle the notoriously loud IMAX camera during intimate scenes, and building a mirror system so actors could make eye contact around the enormous equipment.

The Casting That’s Actually at the Center of This

Nyong’o is, by any measure, a remarkable choice for Helen of Troy. A Yale School of Drama graduate, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, built a global following through the Black Panther franchise, and delivered a quietly devastating lead performance in A Quiet Place: Day One. The idea that she’s some kind of compromise casting is, to put it plainly, absurd.

Defenders of the film have also pointed out something the loudest critics keep glossing over: Helen of Troy is a mythological figure. There is no historical record of her existence, no evidence of what she looked like, and no archaeological basis for the claim that she was “fair-skinned and blonde.” She is a character in a poem, not a historical person — which is why, as some have noted on Reddit and elsewhere, adapting her appearance is no more of a distortion than the entire concept of a film about a man escaping a one-eyed giant.

Sunny Hostin made a related point on The View, noting that historians have explored how Greek mythology was influenced by ancient Egypt and North Africa. Whoopi Goldberg was more direct: “I don’t know if you realize this, Lupita is also considered one of the world’s most beautiful women. So, I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.” She also had a message for Musk specifically: “Don’t bother to clown me, baby. I know what I look like. There’s so many things I want to say to you that are rude and awful, but I won’t do it. But know that I’m thinking it.”

Goldberg did wade into murkier territory, remarking that Musk was “OK with apartheid” growing up in South Africa, before quickly walking it back: “I don’t know if he was an ‘apartheid apologist’ and I take it back.”

The Accents, The LeBron Promo, and Everything Else

The casting controversy isn’t the only thing drawing fire. When the latest trailer dropped, The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd wrote that “everybody sounds like they’re from Ohio,” noting that Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson appear to be using American accents. Hibberd pointed out that other historical epics, like Gladiator, defaulted to British accents — also historically inaccurate, but at least carrying the weight of tradition.

The trailer also features the word “Daddy” — used by Telemachus to address his father — which became its own mini-controversy online. And a promotional clip featuring LeBron James and his son as parallels to Odysseus and Telemachus, with LeBron dribbling a basketball over imagery from the film, raised eyebrows in some quarters.

None of it seems to be dampening anticipation for the actual film. Deadline reported last week that The Odyssey is projected to be one of the summer’s top-grossing movies — and IMAX screenings have already sold out a full year in advance. Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer, which made nearly $1 billion and won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, was always going to be an event. The question is whether the noise surrounding it will matter once people actually see it.

Nolan, who has been dreaming about making this film for over 20 years — he was briefly in talks to direct 2004’s Troy before that fell through — seems to already know the answer. “Like the Trojan Horse,” Time’s profile noted, “The Odyssey can be enjoyed as pure spectacle — or it can be cracked open to reveal something deeply human.”

Elon Musk has yet to weigh in on the skin color of the Cyclops.

The post Elon Musk’s Days-Long War on The Odyssey, Explained appeared first on Cream.

• Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens July 17, 2026 — the first film ever shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras
• Nolan defended casting Travis Scott as a bard, saying rap is “analogous” to the oral poetry tradition of Homer
• Lupita Nyong’o has been confirmed to play two roles: both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra
• The film faces a real box office challenge: Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives just two weeks later
• Producer Emma Thomas confirmed the $250M budget reports are overstated, though she called the film “enormous”

Christopher Nolan doesn’t do small. But even by his standards, The Odyssey is something else — a $250 million sword-and-sandals epic shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras, starring what might be the most stacked cast ever assembled for a single film, and carrying the weight of one of the oldest stories in human history. And right now, with its July 17 release date closing in fast, Nolan is doing what he always does when the internet comes for him: explaining himself, calmly and thoroughly, and making you feel like you were the one who didn’t think it through.

In a sweeping new profile with Time magazine, Nolan addressed the wave of online criticism that’s been building since the first trailer dropped — complaints about armor that looks more Gotham than ancient Greece, American accents in Bronze Age Ithaca, and perhaps most divisively, the decision to cast Travis Scott in the film. He took all of it on directly, and the answers are more considered than the backlash probably deserves.

Why Travis Scott Is Playing a Bard in Ancient Greece

When Scott appeared in a teaser trailer earlier this year — dressed as a Greek storyteller, silencing a rowdy mess hall to tell Telemachus (Tom Holland) about his father — the internet had opinions. “Nolan does not know what he’s doing anymore,” one person tweeted. “Pretentious” was a word that came up more than once.

Nolan’s reasoning, though, is disarmingly logical. “I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry,” he told Time, “which is analogous to rap.”

It’s not a random creative leap. The Homeric epics weren’t written down and read — they were performed, recited by traveling poets called bards, passed between generations through rhythm and repetition. Scott, who plays one of those bards, is a living continuation of that tradition in Nolan’s reading. And the two have genuine history: Scott contributed “The Plan” as the closing track for Nolan’s 2020 film Tenet, a collaboration that Nolan told GQ at the time came from Scott’s “immediate, insightful, and profound” understanding of the film’s musical and narrative mechanics. Nolan even sent Scott a handwritten note raving about his “Franchise” music video, writing: “Love the video (shot on film, no less!). I can’t wait to hear it on the IMAX speakers.”

For what it’s worth, Scott had a scene-stealing moment in that January teaser. “A war, a man, a trick — a trick to break the walls of Troy,” he booms, as images of the Trojan War flash across the screen. “It burning, screaming to the ground.” Some fans pushed back on the critics, pointing out that Tyler, the Creator just appeared in Marty Supreme without this level of hand-wringing. Others noted the Tenet connection as evidence of a real creative relationship, not a stunt.

About That “Batman Armor” Problem

The other major flashpoint has been the look of the film’s costumes — specifically the imposing all-black armor worn by Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon, which drew immediate comparisons to the Batsuit. “Had no idea Ancient Greeks used Batman helmets and sailed in Viking ships,” one commenter wrote after the debut trailer. “Nothing says Ancient Greece quite like wearing black and brown,” said another. “A little colour wouldn’t hurt you, Nolan.”

Nolan’s defense here leans on archaeology. “There are Mycenaean daggers that are blackened bronze,” he explained. “The theory is they probably could have blackened bronze in those days. You take bronze, you add more gold and silver to it and then use sulfur.” As for the design choices more broadly, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick was deliberately trying to communicate Agamemnon’s status above everyone else — and expensive, unusual materials are how you do that in a world without designer labels.

He also made a more philosophical point about the nature of adapting ancient history. The oldest depictions of Homeric characters, he noted, “tend to be depicted in the manner of people living in Homer’s time” — roughly 400 to 500 years after the Bronze Age collapse. So there’s a legitimate case, Nolan argues, for presenting the story the way its first audiences received it, rather than chasing archaeological precision for a period we barely understand. “For Interstellar, you’re looking at, ‘What is the best speculation of the future?’ When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s actually the same thing,” he said. “What is the best speculation, and how can I use that to create a world?”

“Hopefully they’ll enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything,” he added. “We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar. But you just don’t want people to think that you took it on frivolously.”

The Gods Won’t Be Showing Up (But You’ll Feel Them)

One of the more surprising creative choices Nolan revealed: he decided against casting actors to play the Olympian gods. No Poseidon. No Zeus. In a story where divine intervention is essentially the engine of the plot, that’s a bold call.

His reasoning gets at something genuinely interesting about what cinema can do. “I became more interested in the idea that, to people in that period, evidence of gods was everywhere,” Nolan said. “The wonderful thing about cinema, and IMAX in particular, is that you can take an audience to a place of immersion, feeling close to events like storms, turbulent seas, high winds. You want the audience to be on the boat with them fearing the ocean, fearing the wrath of Poseidon, the way the characters do. That to me is so much more powerful than any individual image you can have of a god.”

It’s consistent with how Nolan has always worked — grounding the mythic in the felt, the physical, the human. The Dark Knight trilogy explained every gadget. Interstellar built its wormhole from real astrophysics. Even in a story full of monsters and enchantresses, Nolan wants you to believe in the stakes before you believe in the spectacle.

One exception to the no-gods rule: Zendaya, who is playing Athena. Her role in the story — appearing to Telemachus, nudging events toward Odysseus’s return — apparently works differently enough from the other gods to merit the casting. The details of how Nolan handles that are still under wraps.

Lupita Nyong’o Is Playing Two People, and the Cast Stayed in Budget Hotels

The Time profile also confirmed something fans had been speculating about: Lupita Nyong’o is pulling double duty. She plays both Helen of Troy — the most beautiful woman in the world, whose abduction by a Trojan prince triggers the war — and Helen’s sister Clytemnestra, who is married to Agamemnon. It’s a casting choice that draws a direct line between the two women at the center of the Trojan War’s origin, and it gives Nyong’o one of the film’s most complex dramatic assignments.

Meanwhile, the production’s approach to its enormous budget is apparently less glamorous than you’d imagine. Anne Hathaway, who plays Penelope, revealed that the cast — Holland, Robert Pattinson, and everyone else — was housed in budget accommodation on a small island in Sicily. “There’s no indulgent nonsense,” she said. “It’s just about the work, and we’re all so happy to be there.”

On the budget question, producer Emma Thomas — Nolan’s wife and longtime producing partner — pushed back on reports that the film cost $250 million. “It’s not our most expensive movie,” she told Time, “but the film is enormous.” The current belief is that The Dark Knight Rises, which came in between $250 million and $300 million before tax credits, remains Nolan’s most expensive production.

There’s also a quietly delightful behind-the-scenes connection for Interstellar fans: Bill Irwin, who voiced and physically performed TARS — the sarcastic, boxy robot that became one of that film’s most beloved characters — is back. This time, he’s guiding the performance of the Cyclops. Just like he did with TARS, Irwin will be working to make the creature feel tactile and physically real rather than purely digital. It’s exactly the kind of practical-effects-first instinct that defines how Nolan builds his worlds.

The Tom Holland Problem

All of this would be enough to make The Odyssey one of the most talked-about films of the year. But there’s a box office wrinkle that no amount of IMAX spectacle can fully solve, and it has everything to do with one of the film’s own stars.

Tom Holland plays Telemachus — Odysseus’s son, desperately searching for news of his father while suitors overrun his home. It’s a meaty role in a prestige film, and Holland’s presence is a genuine asset for Nolan: he pulls younger audiences, generates buzz outside the cinephile bubble, and helps sell a Homer adaptation to people who haven’t thought about ancient Greece since high school.

The catch is that just two weeks after The Odyssey opens, Holland is back in the MCU for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. And Spider-Man doesn’t need a perfect trailer or unanimous critical praise to dominate the conversation — it just needs to exist. No Way Home finished at $1.921 billion worldwide. Even a less-electric sequel is a commercial force that will immediately absorb the pop culture oxygen The Odyssey needs to sustain momentum past opening weekend.

Nolan’s films depend on staying power. Oppenheimer made $975.8 million — an extraordinary number for a three-hour biopic — but it still didn’t crack $1 billion, and that mark has eluded him since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. The Odyssey looks like his best shot in over a decade to get there: epic scale, universal source material, the first film ever shot entirely in IMAX 70mm, and a cast that reads like a Hollywood roll call. Advance tickets reportedly sold out extremely fast when they went on sale, and the first trailer was met with genuine excitement.

But the second trailer landed with a slightly more mixed response — some felt the tone skewed too modern, the dialogue too contemporary Hollywood for a story rooted in ancient myth. Not enough to kill the hype, but enough to raise a question about whether Nolan is threading this needle as cleanly as he did with Oppenheimer.

Universal’s Donna Langley, for her part, sounds confident. “It is a global story that has existed for thousands of years,” she told Time. “That, coupled with Christopher Nolan’s name and what that means for cinema, which we know means a lot, and an all-star cast, it makes for a very worthy and solid commercial bet.”

Nolan himself has acknowledged the scale of what he’s attempting. “Anyone taking on The Odyssey is taking on the hopes and dreams of people for epic movies everywhere,” he said, “and that comes with a huge responsibility.”

The Odyssey opens in theaters July 17, 2026.

The post Christopher Nolan Opens Up About The Odyssey’s Biggest Controversies appeared first on Cream.

• Lupita Nyong’o is confirmed to play both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey
• Jon Bernthal plays Helen’s husband Menelaus, while Benny Safdie plays Agamemnon, Clytemnestra’s husband
• Anne Hathaway revealed the entire A-list cast stayed in budget accommodations on a small island in Sicily to keep money on screen
• Nolan decided against casting actors as the gods of Mount Olympus, opting instead to convey their presence through nature
• The film, starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, is the first ever shot entirely in IMAX format and carries an estimated $250 million budget

Lupita Nyong’o isn’t just joining Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey — she’s doubling down. The Oscar-winning actress has been confirmed to play not one but two pivotal roles in the highly anticipated epic: Helen of Troy and her sister, Clytemnestra.

The casting, which had been the subject of months of online speculation, was officially confirmed through a new Time profile of Nolan. Nyong’o’s Helen is, as legend goes, the most beautiful woman in the world — the woman whose departure from Sparta with the Trojan prince Paris ignited the war that sent Odysseus on his decade-long journey home. But Nolan isn’t content to leave that story where Homer did.

“The reunion between Odysseus’ fellow king Menelaus and his wife Helen — the most beautiful woman in the world, blamed for starting the war after a Trojan prince spirited her away — has always felt too neatly resolved in the poem,” the Time report notes. “Nolan complicates it.” And complicates it he does: Nyong’o will also portray Clytemnestra, Helen’s sister, whose marriage to Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon is described as, to put it mildly, acrimonious. Jon Bernthal plays Menelaus, while Benny Safdie — fresh off directing The Smashing Machine — steps into the armored, hulking presence of Agamemnon.

It’s a bold creative choice, and Nyong’o is exactly the kind of performer who can carry it. Both Helen and Clytemnestra are figures whose portrayals in classical literature have long been tangled up in misogyny — Helen reduced to a face that launched a thousand ships, Clytemnestra painted as a villain in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Giving both roles to the same actress, in a Nolan film, suggests something far more nuanced is coming.

The Cast, the Budget, and the No-Frills Sicily Shoot

Nyong’o joins a cast that reads like a studio executive’s fever dream: Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his loyal wife Penelope, Tom Holland as their son Telemachus, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Zendaya all rounding out an ensemble that would be the envy of any franchise. And yet, by all accounts, nobody was living large on this one.

Hathaway, speaking in the same Time profile, made clear that Nolan runs a tight ship — literally. “You’ve got Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, a slew of other very fine actors, me, and we’re all staying in budget accommodation on a small island in Sicily because there’s no indulgent nonsense,” she said. “It’s just about the work, and we’re all so happy to be there.”

With an estimated $250 million budget, every dollar is clearly going to the screen — not the star trailers.

No Gods on Camera — And Why Nolan Made That Call

One of the more fascinating revelations from the Time piece is what won’t be in the film. Nolan considered casting actors to embody the gods of Mount Olympus — a fairly obvious move for any adaptation of Greek mythology — and then walked away from the idea entirely.

“I became more interested in the idea that, to people in that period, evidence of gods was everywhere,” Nolan explained. “The wonderful thing about cinema, and IMAX in particular, is that you can take an audience to a place of immersion, feeling close to events like storms, turbulent seas, high winds. You want the audience to be on the boat with them fearing the ocean, fearing the wrath of Poseidon, the way the characters do. That to me is so much more powerful than any individual image you can have of a god.”

It’s a characteristically Nolan move — choosing to make the audience feel something rather than simply show them something. And it tracks with the film’s other major technical distinction: The Odyssey is the first film ever shot entirely in the IMAX format, meaning those churning seas and storm-battered ships are going to hit differently on the big screen.

Nolan also shed light on one of the more unexpected casting choices — rapper Travis Scott, who appears in the film as a bard. “I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan said. It’s the kind of detail that sounds strange until it suddenly makes complete sense.

A recent trailer had already set fan forums ablaze over the cast’s American accents. Now, with Nyong’o confirmed in a dual role that reframes two of antiquity’s most complicated women, the conversation has a whole new dimension to it.

The post Lupita Nyong’o Is Playing Two Roles in Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ appeared first on Cream.

• The new full-length trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey dropped and the internet immediately zeroed in on one word: “dad”
• Tom Holland, playing Telemachus, says “My dad is coming home” — and fans can’t decide if it’s a dealbreaker or completely fine
• Robert Pattinson’s line “You’re pining for a daddy you didn’t even know” is also drawing major attention — and major praise for his villain work
• The $250 million film, shot entirely on IMAX cameras, opens July 17, 2026, and is already shaping up to be the movie event of the year
• Nolan has defended his vision of the story as his own interpretation, not a period-accurate recreation

Two thousand years of mythology, a $250 million budget, the greatest living director, and an all-star cast that reads like the Avengers roster — and what has the internet decided to focus on? One three-letter word.

The new full-length trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey landed this week, and it’s genuinely breathtaking — sweeping IMAX vistas, the Trojan Horse rendered in fire and shadow, a glimpse of the Cyclops lurking in a dark cave, and a cast so stacked it almost feels unfair. But within hours of the trailer dropping, the conversation online had narrowed sharply to a single moment: Tom Holland, playing Odysseus’s son Telemachus, looking dead-serious into the camera and declaring, “My dad is coming home.”

Not “my father.” Not “my king.” Dad.

The line — delivered in a fully American accent, in a film set in 1200 BCE — hit viewers like a record scratch. “First time hearing ‘DAD’ in a historical epic film,” one YouTube commenter wrote. Another called it something “from a sitcom.” On X, one user posted: “‘Dad’? It’s Father. Modern terms have no place in this film” — though the discourse there was considerably more colorful in places, with at least one person admitting the word made them “scream in horror.”

The line doesn’t exist in isolation, either. It comes as a direct response to Robert Pattinson’s character Antinous, who leans into Telemachus and sneers: “You’re pining for a daddy you didn’t even know, like some sniveling bastard.” So there are two daddy references in quick succession, and the internet caught both of them.

One particularly sharp fan on YouTube compared Holland’s delivery to a very different famous son, writing that “‘My dad is coming home’ gave ‘My father will hear about this’ vibes” — a Harry Potter Draco Malfoy reference that somehow made perfect sense.

Robert Pattinson Is Winning the Internet Anyway

Here’s the thing: even the people most bothered by the word “dad” seem to agree that Robert Pattinson is doing something genuinely special with Antinous. His delivery of that line — cold, contemptuous, precise — has become one of the most-discussed moments in the trailer for all the right reasons.

“Say whatever you want, but I think Robert Pattinson is pretty solid casting for Antinous,” wrote @TristanPudde on X, adding that the character’s irritating quality is exactly the point — you’re supposed to hate him. @MovieTimePicks went further: “The way Robert Pattinson can deliver a line that is both a biological fact and a soul-crushing insult is why he’s the best in the business right now.”

Antinous, for those whose Greek mythology is a little rusty, is the most aggressive of the suitors who have descended on Ithaca in Odysseus’s absence, vying for Penelope’s hand — and, by extension, the throne. In the trailer, he tells Penelope flatly, “I want you to choose me,” and when she insists Odysseus is returning, he gives her a slow smile and says, “No, he’s not.” It’s genuinely unsettling. And then he’s seen unsheathing a blade.

Anne Hathaway’s Penelope, meanwhile, is clearly not the passive, weeping wife of some adaptations. She shuts Antinous down cold: “Ithaca’s king is coming back.” The trailer also shows her in tears later, admitting “that world is gone” — which raises some interesting questions about where the story goes.

Everything Else the New Trailer Reveals

Beyond the dialogue debate, there’s a lot to take in. The trailer opens with Charlize Theron as Calypso — the mythological nymph who holds Odysseus captive on her island for seven years — demanding, “Tell me what you remember.” Her scenes with Matt Damon’s Odysseus, who asks her to help him get home, have a haunted, otherworldly quality that feels unlike anything in Nolan’s previous work.

The Trojan Horse makes an appearance, shown in silhouette standing upright on two legs — a unique visual choice — with a soldier rappelling from its belly as troops storm a fortress. It’s a bold image, and a notable one, given that the Trojan Horse barely features in Homer’s original text. Nolan is clearly working from a broader canvas than the poem alone.

The Cyclops Polyphemus is teased in a dark cave sequence, emerging slowly from shadow with its single eye positioned high on the forehead. It’s creepy and effective. There’s also a glimpse of the massive whirlpool caused by the sea monster Charybdis, as Odysseus and his men row desperately against the current.

John Leguizamo appears as the servant Eumaeus — almost unrecognizable — in a scene where Telemachus confides in him about whether his father will ever return. And yes, there is a puppy. There is also, based on the imagery, a dead dog later in the film, which suggests that Odysseus’s loyal hound Argos — one of the most quietly devastating moments in the original poem — will make an appearance.

Zendaya (as Athena), Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Benny Safdie, and Travis Scott are all in the film but largely absent from this trailer, which means there’s still plenty being held back.

Is the Backlash Missing the Point?

The “dad” controversy sits inside a larger conversation about Nolan’s creative choices: the American accents across the board (including from London-born Holland and Pattinson, who both speak in nonspecific American dialects), the anachronistic-looking armor on some soldiers, and the general decision to treat a 3,000-year-old myth as a living, contemporary story rather than a museum piece.

SlashFilm pointed out that the accents extend beyond individual word choices — at another point in the trailer, Odysseus rallies his troops with a very American “Let’s go!” — and argued that the dialect strips the story of some of its grandeur. Others have noted that the armor on Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) and the giants that Odysseus encounters looks more medieval than Bronze Age.

But the counterargument is hard to dismiss: The Odyssey is a fantasy. It features gods, a one-eyed giant, a sea monster, and a nymph who offers immortality. Demanding period accuracy from a story that was never meant to be historically accurate in the first place is a strange hill to die on. And Nolan himself has been clear that this is his interpretation of the myth, not a reconstruction of it. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he described Homer as “the George Lucas of his time” and the epic as “the Marvel of its day” — direct, mythological storytelling designed to make audiences feel that gods could walk among them.

He’s also confirmed the film will be told in Nolan’s signature non-linear style, which actually mirrors Homer’s original structure — the poem begins in medias res, deep into the journey, and works backward and forward through time. That’s very much Nolan’s territory.

The film was shot across multiple global locations, with four months at sea — a decision that visibly shaped the footage. “It’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift,” Nolan said of filming on open water. “We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.”

It’s also the first narrative feature film ever shot entirely on IMAX cameras — a genuine milestone — with Nolan’s longtime cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar, Oppenheimer) behind the lens and Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar for Oppenheimer‘s score, handling the music. The early reaction to the trailer’s soundtrack has been enthusiastic.

Whether “dad” belongs in ancient Ithaca is, ultimately, a question that will be answered on July 17. But if Nolan’s track record means anything — and it really does — there’s probably a reason for it. Or at the very least, it’ll be the most debated three-letter word in cinema this year.

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