When the Academy rolled out its Representation and Inclusion Standards in 2020, it assured us Hollywood would be making more films like this. That wasn’t surprising. I believe that is also the reason 1917 wasn’t given its obvious Best Picture win in 2019. It simply didn’t rise to the level of “inclusive” Hollywood now required, even though it hadn’t been made official.
“Director Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation of The Odyssey… has already prompted a torrent of division and negative backlash for its casting, which some have framed as a modern affront to a foundational text of Western literature.”
— Christian Post
What is somewhat surprising is Christopher Nolan’s willingness to go along with it to such extremes. He seems to have gone in with reckless abandon, and he is going to learn just how much our shared reality has shifted as the rejection of this film grows louder. Sure, it will sell some tickets to the normies. It may even turn a profit. But it is an absolute PR disaster for the Christopher Nolan brand. At the time of writing, the trailer is estimated to have accumulated roughly 700,000 dislikes on YouTube.
The backlash is so fervent because people felt that Nolan was still a filmmaker first. That he hadn’t dug into this level of modernist deconstruction at any time before. I had my doubts when the film was announced, the color palette itself felt off, earthy and brutalist in a way that signaled a “reimagining for a new and diverse audience.”
This was filmed in 2025, well past the point when mainstream audiences would accept such a subversive interpretation of a classic. This isn’t a timing issue. It’s either the director’s indifference to his former broad spectrum appeal, a gross miscalculation or a humiliation ritual.