The Odysseywill allow a new type of Christopher Nolan movie to be unearthed, but I am not entirely sure people are ready for that.Christopher Nolan’s highly ranked movieshave enabled the filmmaker to carve out his own niche in Hollywood. In many ways, Nolan resembles an indie filmmaker, only with soaring budgets that drive audiences to theaters.
The Odyssey’s record-breaking ticket sales, achieved an entire year before the movie has even been released, are proof of this. So too is the hype aroundThe Odyssey’s trailer, which was also shown for the first time in July 2025, ahead of the movie’s worldwide release a year later. This is all evidence of Nolan’s success with audiences.
That said,The Odysseywill be a very different Nolan movie, especially in comparison to his last effort, the biographicalOppenheimer. These differences will unlock a completely new type of movie for Nolan to play with, though I fear audiences are not entirely ready for this drastic change based on previous experiences with this.
Christopher Nolan Has Always Kept It Real
Throughout Nolan’s entire filmography, the director has more than often tried to keep his various stories grounded in reality.Oppenheimerwas a big indication of this, given its biographical nature. However, even in Nolan’s more fantastical films likeInceptionandInterstellar, they tend to be grounded in realism.
Nolan’s take on science-fiction adventures tends to lean more into the science than the fiction. This complements his values as a filmmaker, too, with Nolan often opting to capture big set-pieces in camera with practical effects and stunts, as opposed to an overreliance on CGI.Inception’s dream hallway fight is evidence enough of this.
Even when Nolan dipped his feet into the world of superheroes with hisDark Knighttrilogy, Batman became a more grounded character. Bruce Wayne would utilize his company’s connections to arms dealers to buy what were essentially tanks as his Batmobile, as well as armored suits for his Batman costume.Even when Nolan is bending reality, literally and figuratively, he keeps things grounded.
The Odyssey Will Force Nolan To Embrace Fantasy
WithThe Odyssey,though, Nolan cannot escape the need to embrace fantasy and magic. UnlikeThe Prestige, the magic on display inThe Odysseyis no illusion. Of course,The Odysseyis based on the poem of the same name by the Ancient Greek poet, Homer. This time, Nolan is entering a world of gods and monsters in Ancient Greece.
The Odysseywill thus include elements that cannot be grounded in the reality of our world or explained away using science. Some ofThe Odyssey’s most exciting sceneswill include Cyclops, Sirens, the God of the Underworld known as Hades, the Underworld itself, and several more mythological creatures and tales that the story’s main character, Odysseus, will encounter.
With all of this in mind, there is no way to logistically createThe Odysseywhile grounding it in any sense of reality or real-world logic. Beyond that,The Odysseywill likely feature the biggest reliance on CGI in Nolan’s entire filmography thus far, due to the story’s adaptation of Ancient Greek monsters and locations.
Are Christopher Nolan’s Fans Ready For The Odyssey?
All of this raises the question, then, of whether Cristopher Nolan fans are ready forThe Odyssey. Nolan’s movies - despite being overly beloved - are most criticized when they strain credulity.Tenetis perhaps the filmmaker’s most divisive effort, mostly driven by the inability of mass audiences to truly understand the film’s mind-boggling concepts.
Tenetis more meant to be felt and experienced, as opposed to understood, yet this proved too much for audiences to invest in. Even some of Nolan’s more revered movies, likeInterstellar, include elements that caused audiences to check out. The third act ofInterstellarleans much harder into fictitious elements than the previously science-based space travel.
Then you have theending ofThe Dark Knight Rises. Despite being a much more grounded take on Batman and his villains, like Bane, the inclusion of a nuclear explosion that Bruce Wayne miraculously survives caused some to think the film did not adequately set up this conclusion. These moments all prove thatNolan’s more unrealistic aspects tend to be his most divisive.
WithThe Odysseybeing Nolan’s next movie, the question of whether fans are ready for it is more prevalent than ever. If audiences have been more unwilling to grasp Nolan’s more unrealistic aspects thus far, the possibility that they will not grasp an entirely fantastical story from the filmmaker is high. That said, there are some ways this could be avoided.
For one,anyone going in to watchThe Odysseyshould know from the off that it will be versed in more magic than science. The film is based on an Ancient Greek poem, after all, meaning magical elements should be expected. In some of the other Nolan movies mentioned, these more far-fetched concepts may have been divisive due to being unexpected.
In an entire movie that leans into fantasy, though,The Odyssey’s more unrealistic moments will feel less unexpected. Nonetheless, the trend is clear: the more unrealistic aspects of Nolan’s films tend to be less widely loved.The Odysseywill be a massive test of this, proving whether audiences are truly ready to accept an entirely new type of Christopher Nolan movie.
