Elon Musk says he is ready to give Mel Gibson $100 million to create a rival version of The Odyssey, following a sustained backlash from conservative voices over Christopher Nolan’s high-profile adaptation and its casting.
The controversy has only intensified since the film opened in cinemas on July 17, 2026, with Musk now also saying his AI tool Grok could make a full-length version of the poem by the end of the year.
Over recent months, Musk has repeatedly attacked Nolan’s film, accusing the director of “desecrating” Homer’s classic by giving Elliot Page and Lupita Nyong’o major roles.
He has argued that those casting decisions show a lack of respect for Greek culture, and has suggested Gibson should step in to make what he describes as a “historically accurate” interpretation instead.
Musk’s criticism has been echoed by several prominent right-wing commentators.
Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, who has described himself as a “theocratic fascist”, wrote on X that the movie was “just as woke as you fear, if not more so”. He also called it “disjointed, dull, self-serious” and said the “DEI casting” pulled attention away from the plot.
Others, including Benny Johnson and Megyn Kelly, have raised similar objections. Kelly argued that Helen of Troy was “written as a white person”, although classicists have challenged that claim, noting Helen belongs to mythology rather than recorded history.
But the reaction on the right has not been unanimous. Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro gave the film a glowing review, calling it a “masterpiece” and saying complaints focused on casting were “missing the Biblical forest for the woke trees.”
IMHO, a lot of conservatives are missing the Biblical forest for the woke trees in Nolan's Odyssey. Yes, the casting of Elliot Page is silly and egregious. But here's the thing: Nolan's "The Odyssey" is an apologia for Christian morality poured into a Greek vase.
The entire…
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 21, 2026
In his post on X, Shapiro highlighted what he called the film’s central “Zeus’ law”, which encourages people to treat others as they would want to be treated because “anyone might be a god,”. He argued that idea is much closer to Christian ethics than to traditional Greek mythology.
Even so, Shapiro agreed with some of the objections, saying the decision to cast transgender actor Elliot Page as Sinon was “silly and egregious”.
He was far less interested in the debate around Nyong’o, however, dismissing it as a “dumbass discussion”. He also rejected Johnson’s earlier claim that the movie would “bomb” commercially.
Fox host Lara Trump also spoke positively about the release during a Fox & Friends appearance, saying she enjoys “things on the big screen that make you want to go to the movie theater.” Her colleague Griff Jenkins added that it was, at the very least, a “visual masterpiece”.
Despite the political dispute, the movie’s performance has been strong. It currently has a 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, the best of Nolan’s career, and it became the quickest film to hit one million “watched” logs on Letterboxd, doing so in only six days.
At the box office, it debuted with $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million globally, meaning it had already overtaken its reported $250 million budget within just a few days.
Nyong’o has previously defended her involvement, describing The Odyssey as a “mythological story” with a cast “representative of the world”. Nolan, meanwhile, has brushed off the complaints as “irrelevant”, pointing out that much of the criticism surfaced before reviewers had even watched the film.
When was it written? The Odyssey is generally dated to somewhere between 725 BC and 675 BC, making it more than 2,500 years old.
Is it based on a true story? Largely no. Elements such as the cyclops are obviously mythical, and historians still disagree over whether the Trojan War itself really happened.
Who wrote The Odyssey? Homer is traditionally credited, though scholars still debate whether Homer was one individual or a collective name for multiple poets.
How long is the movie? The runtime is 2hrs, 52mins, so planning a bathroom trip in advance may be wise.
Where was the movie filmed? The Hellenic Film Commission said Nolan and his team shot scenes across the Peloponnese, including Nestor’s Cave, Voidokilia Beach and Almyrolaka Beach on the island of Pylos, as well as Methoni Castle in the southwestern port town of the same name and Acrocorinth, the monolith above the ancient city of Corinth.
Vogue also reported that production took place in Morocco, with filming in Marrakech, Tahanaoute, El Haouz, Essaouira and Ouarzazate. The cast and crew were additionally seen on Favignana in Sicily, while Iceland was used for the underworld sequences.
Elsewhere in Europe, the production also filmed in Scotland, including along the Moray Firth Coast and at Findlater Castle and Culbin Forest.
The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm vs normal cinema screens: The film’s website helpfully compares the trailer across six different formats, each using a different aspect ratio. That gives viewers a chance to see how IMAX 70mm differs from the standard 35mm presentation. There are only 25 IMAX 70mm screens in the US.
The Odyssey is in cinemas now.