Interstellar. The Dark Knight. Inception. Christopher Nolan’s films have always been huge hits in Hollywood. After all his success, you could even argue that the director’s work is review-proof and backlash-proof, with the only real complaints being his sound choices over the years. But now, The Odyssey has changed all that. For the first time, Nolan is having to navigate backlash from moviegoers who are upset about his casting choices.
The “worm” heard round X
Right before The Odyssey’s London premiere, Elon Musk replied to a post on X celebrating The Odyssey trailer‘s dislike count and told his followers Nolan had “desecrated Homer” to chase an Oscar. “What a worm,” Musk wrote in a reply that gained thousands of likes within hours. Musk has been negatively commenting on Nolan’s The Odyssey for months now. And it’s clear by his comments that he has a bone to pick with the director.
What’s strange is that Musk has actually been close with Nolan’s brother and Interstellar co-writer Jonathan Nolan for years. But the two don’t seem to agree here, as Jonathan has called his brother’s movie “spectacular” and “an incredible achievement” after an early screening of The Odyssey.
The dislike count that keeps moving
Over the last decade or more, nearly every Christopher Nolan movie trailer has had positive feedback – even Tenet, which is considered by many as his least polished work, had thousands of likes and comments. The Odyssey countdown trailer on Universal’s own YouTube channel shows the shift. It’s been flooded with dislikes and negative comments about casting picks and comments mocking the Helen of Troy.
“I paid nothing to see this trailer and I already want my money back,” one person wrote on YouTube. “The face that emptied a thousand seats,” wrote another. A comment, “I never thought I would see the day when a movie about Greek mythology would come out and I wouldn’t want to see it,” got over 6,000 likes.
The studio’s response, however, says a lot, too. They’ve turned off replies on X and given critics an embargo that’s really close to the release day (July 15, two days before). Those actions are clearly in the hopes of killing all the controversy.
None of this started with the trailer
The casting fights, of course, predate the marketing by months. Lupita Nyong’o’s Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Zendaya’s Athena, and Elliot Page’s Sinon have all come under fire. Even Greek commentators have been vocal about the production’s representation choices – wanting authentic Greek actors to play the roles.
Musk made the Nyong’o backlash much worse when he called it out in January. By May, he was saying that Nolan desecrated The Odyssey to be eligible for an Academy Award.
The one card Nolan still has
Still, it’s a Christopher Nolan movie. IMAX 70mm seats for The Odyssey sold out a year in advance. Hardcore fans don’t care about what happens on X. They’ve already bought their tickets. Nolan has always delivered larger-than-life stories with epic visuals and amazing performances from his cast. There’s nothing from the trailers that has suggested that The Odyssey would be any different.
As many have already pointed out, The Odyssey is a fictional movie about a fictional story. But some people just won’t be convinced.
