Christopher Nolan Had 1 Unbreakable Rule For Odyssey

2026 is already shaping up to be a big year for film, and one of the most hotly anticipated films in that lineup is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. While the film has taken some flak recently with critiques of its historical accuracy, the film is still in elite company in terms of hype and anticipation. Part of that is due to the reputation Nolan has crafted over the years, both in terms of quality and attention to detail, that ties directly into Nolan’s unexpected and unbreakable rule for The Odyssey.

In an interview with Empire, Nolan spoke of the extensive time they spent out at sea to bring the legendary quest to life on the big screen. Nolan wanted to bring a grounded quality to the lengthy sea voyage, and that extended to the characters and their beards. “I’m not a big fan of wigs and fake beards,” Nolan said. “You want the physicality of real hair, so you can put a firehose on the guy and do all the things we need him to do.”

That beard rule extended to Matt Damon as well, who said, “I’d never tried to grow a beard that size. I mean, there are about 100 things that take a beard off my face before it can get that long, starting with my kids. But yeah, he wanted it all real.”

Christopher Nolan Wanted To Capture The Challenge Of The Odyssey

The no fake beards rule was part of a bigger attempt to really showcase how difficult an undertaking this journey would have been. The shoot took place over 91 days, and Nolan revealed that, “We shot over two million feet of film, which included quite a bit of footage out on the ocean.

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When asked about the time at sea, Nolan said, “It’s pretty primal. I’ve been out on it for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’s 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 believes the only way to convey how impressive the journey was is to also convey the challenge it contained for those who experienced it. “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,” Nolan said. “Because you’re confronted on a daily basis by the world pushing back at you.”

The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17, 2026.

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