Christopher Nolan is unfazed by the pre-release backlash that erupted on social media in the months leading up to his latest directorial effort, The Odyssey. The film, a star-studded adaptation of the Greek epic Homer, irritated Elon Musk and Trump’s MAGA base with its casting choices, and angered historical purists with Nolan’s armor design, use of American accents and modern English dialogue.
“It comes with the territory,” Nolan told The Telegraph of the backlash generated by the film’s pre-release. “But look, these conversations that happen before people see the film are always irrelevant because no one who is having them even knows what the film actually is.”
More from Variety
Nolan knew from the start that reviewing The Odyssey would spark heated comments online, and he’s a seasoned veteran when it comes to quelling pre-release outrage.
“Remember, I spent 10 years of my life working with Batman. When I came to Inception, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and there were many troubling thoughts about what he represented. And what I learned while working on this trilogy is that you can’t worry about that at all. What you need to do is respect the original text by interpreting it as strongly as you personally can.”
“At the end of the day, fans of this project—even when we did things that weren’t what they would have done—enjoyed the sincerity of trying to put on screen the best version possible,” Nolan continued. “All I can do is make the best film I can in the most sincere way. It’s very different from how someone else would do it, but that’s the adaptation.”
Elon Musk was one of the Odyssey’s most vocal opponents on social media. He spoke out against the film in February after it was revealed that Lupita Nyong’o would play Helen of Troy. Musk commented: “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.”
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh used X to insult Nyong’o, writing: “Not a single person on the planet actually thinks Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows he’ll be called a racist if he gives the role of “most beautiful woman” to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented but a coward.” Musk went on to say that Nolan “wants awards,” which is why he thinks Nolan is changing the races of the characters in Odyssey.
In additional X posts, Musk retweeted posts mocking Elliot Page’s masculinity and argued that Nolan was trampling on Homer’s grave with his casting choices. There was outrage among the MAGA base over the idea of Page playing the legendary Greek warrior Achilles, although the claim was unsubstantiated at the time. It turns out that Page doesn’t even play Achilles in the film. Nolan cast his Inception actor to play the warrior Sinon.
The design of the armor in the film was also criticized, which many on social media said resembled Batman’s more modern-looking Batsuit.
“There are Mycenaean daggers made of blackened bronze,” Nolan told Time magazine earlier this year, defending his design. “The theory is that bronze could probably be blackened in those days. You take bronze, add more gold and silver to it, and then use sulfur… With Agamemnon, Ellen (Mirojnik), our costume designer, tries to convey how elevated he is compared to everyone else. You do it with materials that would be very expensive.”
The Odyssey opens in Universal Pictures theaters July 17.
The best in variety
Sign up for Variety’s newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.