In what's proven to be a busy week for new trailers, we have a pretty good indication that a sneak peek for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is somewhere on the horizon, thanks to the launch of two Empire Magazine covers.
These typically signify that a trailer release is planned, and we'd put money on it being paired with Avatar: Fire and Ash on IMAX screens next month.
For now, the newsstand cover finds Matt Damon's Odysseus flanked by the Trojan horse as his epic journey home begins. The subscriber cover, meanwhile, features a piece of artwork by Paul Shipper with warriors hauling the horse towards Troy. We also have a still featuring Odysseus and his men.
The Odyssey was shot entirely with IMAX cameras and, according to Nolan, he "shot over two million feet of film" during production.
The filmmaker added, "Emma [Thomas] said it best when we first announced the project: it’s foundational. There’s a bit of everything in it. I mean, it truly contains all stories. As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before."
"And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with – Ray Harryhausen movies and other things – I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do," Nolan shared.
Further teasing The Odyssey's epic scale, he said, "I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’ ship out there on the real waves, in the real places. And yeah, it’s vast and terrifying and wonderful and benevolent, as the conditions shift."
"We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world," Nolan continued. "By embracing the physicality of the real world in the making of the film, you do inform the telling of the story in interesting ways."
The movie is expected to dominate IMAX screens next year, with it likely stopping Spider-Man: Brand New Day from swinging into the premium format screens over the summer.
The ancient Greek poem this movie is based on is one of the foundational texts of Western literature. It tells the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his perilous journey home after the Trojan War, exploring themes of heroism, loyalty, cunning and the struggle against divine will.
The tale includes iconic stories like Odysseus' encounters with the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Sirens and the witch-goddess Circe, culminating in a reunion with his wife Penelope.
The cast of The Odyssey includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, and Mia Goth.
"Christopher Nolan’s next film The Odyssey is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology," Universal Pictures revealed last December. "The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026."
The Odyssey arrives in theaters on July 17, 2026.