Anticipation will only continue to grow for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey until it is released in movie theaters next year. After the career-defining project for many of Oppenheimer, a roster of new and returning Nolan actors is starring in The Odyssey, which could easily become the most highly-regarded cinematic adaptation of Homer’s epic come 2026. The Odyssey is a narrative inherently concerned with the pᴀssage of time, as the main character Odysseus spends decades trying to return home to his family after the Trojan War.

Christopher Nolan’s best movies are all genre-pushing epics of a mᴀssive scale; while The Odyssey represents something of a shift for him, away from gritty sci-fi or historical sagas into Greek mythology, his strengths as a director will surely still be on display. Nolan has previously directed movies that demonstrate the same themes as The Odyssey, while also engaging in some interesting constructs of narrative progression. The Odyssey‘s original text is non-linear, making it more intriguing to see how Nolan adapts this, given how he usually plays with time.

The Odyssey’s Non-Linear Story Fits With Nolan’s Time Obsession

Oppenheimer, Inception, Tenet, Interstellar, & Memento Are All Non-Linear Or Deal With Time

Musings on time are splattered across Nolan’s filmography, both with simple flashbacks and characters actually delving into (pseudo-)physics. Oppenheimer utilizes different timelines to show elements such as Oppenheimer’s security hearing or Strauss’ senate confirmation hearing alongside the main narrative of the Manhattan Project, while several characters are accomplished physicists who think about time at a much higher level. Tenet is an intricate, fresh time-travel adventure; Inception deals with time pᴀssing differently in dreams; Interstellar shows Cooper losing time with his family due to time dilation during his intergalactic mission.

The motif of the protagonist being separated from his family (Cobb and Cooper) contributes strongly to how Nolan unravels time, but he is doubtlessly very invested in how he can rearrange it to prompt the audience and the characters to think deeply about it. Of course, one of his earlier movies is Memento, a thriller about a man with short-term memory loss trying to solve his wife’s murder, which is essentially told in reverse. The Odyssey may now be framed as Odysseus telling the story after, having parallel storylines, and again featuring the idea of time dilation.

How Else Nolan Could Use Time In The Odyssey

There Are Several Important Time Jumps In The Odyssey

Fans on Reddit have proposed a likely scenario where Nolan will craft a layered narrative that features both Odysseus trying to find a way home while his family protects the kingdom of Ithaca, and his son grows into a man. The whole thing could be framed as a flashback, but there may also be more flashbacks if Nolan chooses to show some elements of Odysseus leaving home and the Trojan War. However, there are some interesting points in the story that we may be tempted to summarize too succinctly, which actually take up years in the characters’ lives, reflecting the tricky nature of time.

The Trojan War is essentially the prelude to this story, which Nolan probably won’t spend too much screen time on, but it lasts 10 years. Telemachus is a baby when Odysseus leaves, and is nearing 30 when he returns. On his voyage, Odysseus encounters the witch Circe and believes he spends only a few days with her, but it turns out to be years. He then spends another several years with Calypso. With several jumps like this that are characterized by Odysseus not realizing time is pᴀssing because of supernatural circumstances, Nolan has a lot to work with and will certainly create something impressive.

Nolan Could Be Making The Definitive Odyssey Adaptation

And The Non-Linear Narrative Would Be A Huge Part Of That

There is already some criticism pertaining to historical accuracy surrounding The Odyssey, and it is going up against previous adaptations, while Nolan is likely to make some changes due to his tastes and to present a fresh story to a modern audience. However, this is still shaping up to be the biggest adaptation of this story we have ever seen and could become the defining one. With Nolan’s own history of time, non-linearity and time dilation could come to be a vital part of what we see as The Odyssey, as it is in the original text.

Source: Reddit