It's been confirmed today that The Odyssey is coming to theaters early—well, 6 minutes of it, at least—on December 12. Moviegoers will be able to catch the prologue ahead of IMAX 70mm screenings of Sinners and One Battle After Another, both of which are returning to multiplexes this weekend.
There aren't many IMAX 70mm screens, meaning that this will be a fairly limited opportunity. Someone is bound to capture it on their cell phone, though that obviously won't be quite the same as seeing it on the biggest screen possible.
The following weekend, a shorter, full-length trailer for The Odyssey is confirmed for Avatar: Fire and Ash screenings that start on December 19. However, the 6-minute prologue will continue being played before IMAX screenings of the Avatar threequel.
Is the trailer getting an online release? Almost certainly, but we may have to wait until the following week due to filmmaker Christopher Nolan's preference for sneak peeks like these to receive exclusive theatrical runs.
As for why the prologue is only going to be seen on IMAX 70mm screens, it's because The Odyssey is the first movie filmed entirely with IMAX cameras (it's also the Oppenheimer helmer's preferred format).
How is it now possible for a movie to be filmed entirely with IMAX cameras? In the past, they've been no good for dialogue scenes because they're noisy and unweildly. That's all changed with the introduction of a casing called the "blimp."
"The blimp system is a game-changer," Nolan previously explained. "You can be shooting a foot from [an actor’s] face while they’re whispering and get usable sound. What that opens up are intimate moments of performance on the world’s most beautiful format."
"I did not destroy an IMAX camera on this film," the filmmaker proudly stated. "I have destroyed several in my time, but these ones survived The Odyssey."
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, Mia Goth, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, Will Yun Lee, Benny Safdie, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Corey Hawkins, Josh Stewart, Jimmy Gonzales, Maurice Compte, and Logan Marshall-Green.
"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.