Christopher Nolan says he did everything he could to include a 3,000-year-old joke from Homer in The Odyssey, but ultimately had to leave it out of the finished film.
With the movie set to open in theaters on July 17, 2026, anticipation is building for Nolan’s adaptation of the classic Greek epic.
The project has already drawn attention for its huge, globe-trotting production, with Nolan shooting on real locations and leaning heavily on practical filmmaking. Reports around the film have described the production using real boats and real water, and Nolan has said he wanted the experience to feel as physical and immediate as possible.
Still, readers of Homer who were hoping to hear one famous bit of wordplay delivered by the film’s star-packed ensemble — including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Elliott Page and Lupita Nyong’o — may be disappointed.
During an appearance on The Daily Show, Nolan discussed the film with Jon Stewart, who brought up “a joke that Odysseus makes with the Cyclops.
Warning: Minor spoiler ahead for those who’ve not read the Homer epic.
Stewart said he had watched The Odyssey with a writer from The Daily Show who had studied the original Greek version of the poem.
He said, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter: “He was very upset that [the joke that Odysseus makes with the Cyclops] was not in the movie.”
Nolan responded: “I understand. It’s a pun. Puns in translation are tough. I tried. It was not possible to work in it.”
The line in question comes from the encounter between Odysseus and the Cyclops in Homer’s telling of the story.
In the original text, Odysseus gives his name as Outis, the Greek word for ‘Nobody’, when the Cyclops asks who he is.
Later, Odysseus drives a stake into the Cyclops’ eye, causing him to cry out in pain and summon the other cyclopes.
That is where the joke lands: the wounded Cyclops is effectively shouting that ‘Nobody’ is attacking him.
Even though that well-known moment did not make it into the movie, Nolan has stressed that the production aimed for authenticity in many other respects.
In recent interviews, he has said the cast and crew filmed with real boats, real water and practical effects wherever possible, and that the scale of the production was demanding for everyone involved.
He added: “We use every trick in the book, certainly. But we wanted to find real locations, get a real boat… It was a hard movie for all the right reasons. The Odyssey should be hard.”
The Odyssey hits theaters July 17, 2026.