Universal has just unveiled a new poster for The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s mega blockbuster, featuring the mythic hero facing one of the darkest threats of his journey.
Between its colossal shoot spanning the globe, the pharaonic production budget poured into The Odyssey, and the inevitable, nosebleed-inducing debates that swirl around the most toxic corners of social media about certain cast members, The Odyssey certainly lives up to its name, turning the making of this epic into a real crucible of technical and human endurance.
That said, Universal’s publicity machine is pressing audiences with hallucinatory promotional visuals. After an initial epic trailer for The Odyssey that had everyone agreeing, a brand-new official poster has just hit the internet. And the verdict is in: this latest poster promises a jaw-dropping showdown of blows.
The Odyssey: Ulysses 31 Ulysses 2026
This promotional poster drops the legendary Ulysses (Matt Damon) straight into a showdown with a horde of colossal monsters. They are the formidable Lestrygons, a faction of towering, armor-clad, cannibal giants armed to the teeth. In short, the famed Ulysses, famed for his wits, looks seriously outgunned against hulking muscle that seems determined to turn him into a snack, with his own sword suddenly appearing more as a toothpick.
For those unfamiliar with or simply lazy about reading Iliad and Odyssey (or who never caught the cult classic cartoon Ulysses 31), the Lestrygons episode in Homer’s original epic ranks among the voyage’s most brutal and bloodthirsty chapters. Ulysses loses nearly his entire fleet to massive boulders hurled from the cliffs by these cannibal beings. Only the flagship breaks free from the deadly trap, leaving hundreds of comrades devoured in an instant.
In Homer’s epic timeline, this jubilant massacre occurs relatively early in Odysseus’ voyage, just after his failed stop at Aeolus and just before his encounter with the sorceress Circe. In Nolan’s film, Circe will be portrayed on screen by Samantha Morton (Minority Report, Fantastic Beasts).
To bring this sprawling tale to life, the director has assembled a truly staggering cast: Matt Damon as Odysseus alongside Tom Holland (Telemachus), Anne Hathaway (Penelope) and Robert Pattinson (Antinous). Add Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal and Benny Safdie, and you have one of the year’s most anticipated movie events. The Odyssey arrives in U.S. theaters on July 15, 2026.
