Who's Playing Who in Christopher Nolan's Epic

Key Points:

• Matt Damon stars as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, portraying the legendary king of Ithaca who masterminded the Trojan Horse and faces numerous mythical challenges on his journey home; Damon describes this as the hardest role of his career.
• Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, Odysseus’s steadfast wife, while Tom Holland debuts in a Nolan film as Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, embarking on a coming-of-age journey; Zendaya joins as Athena, the goddess guiding Odysseus.
• The film features Robert Pattinson as antagonist Antinous, Charlize Theron as the sea nymph Calypso, and Samantha Morton as the sorceress Circe, whose performance Nolan compared to Heath Ledger’s in The Dark Knight.
• Supporting roles include Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, and Bill Irwin as the Cyclops Polyphemus; rapper Travis Scott makes his acting debut as the film’s narrator.
• The Odyssey marks multiple first-time collaborations with Nolan for several stars and reunites others, continuing Nolan’s trend of assembling high-profile casts to bring epic storytelling to the screen.