Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is generating a lot of hype after the official trailer release, and yet we’re still learning new things about the film. The Odyssey has a massive ensemble cast, with some of the biggest stars on the planet involved. In fact, the cast of The Odyssey is so big that we don’t even have confirmed character breakdowns for some of the biggest names on the call sheet!
Videos by ComicBook.com
Case in point: no one has known who Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o is playing in The Odyssey… until now. And, not only does the character confirmation also confirm some longstanding (and controversy-sparking) rumors, but in true Nolan fashion, he’s added a layer no one expected.
Lupita Nyong’o is The Odyssey‘s Helen of Troy (& Her Sister)
Time has a new in-depth feature on Nolan’s The Odyssey that arguably provides more insight than any of the marketing materials. One of the revelations from the article is that Lupita Nyong’o is playing Helen of Troy, the wife of King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), who is considered the most beautiful woman in the world. In Greek mythology (and history), Helen was taken from Greece by Prince Paris of Troy, leading to Menelaus and his brother, King Agamemnon (Benny Safdie), raising a massive army, sailing to Troy, and laying siege to the city. The siege stalls until the Greeks give the Trojans the infamous horse statue as a supposed peace offering, only for Odysseus and his men to use it to sneak into the city and unlock Troy’s impenetrable gates. The city falls, and (depending on the telling), Helen dies or is reclaimed.
Nolan has thrown a twist into the original mythology by casting Lupita Nyong’o as both Helen and her sister, Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon. In the original texts, Clytemnestra is a half-sister of Helen, with the latter having been fathered by Zeus, and Clytemnestra having been fathered by a mortal man. In Greek mythology, her story has a direct impact on the ending of King Agamemnon, arguably helping to change the course of history. Nolan will also reportedly expand Helen’s role in The Odyssey, specifically what happens between her and Menelaus, after the Trojan War. Knowing Nolan’s penchant for multi-pronged storytelling, the arcs of Helen, Clytemnestra, Odysseus (Matt Damon), his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) could come together in a perfectly orchestrated convergence of fates, guided by the gods, further enhancing the subtext of Homer’s epic poem.
The Odyssey will be released in theaters on July 17th. Discuss the latest footage on the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of Studio Pierrot -
Courtesy of Crunchyroll -
Image Courtesy of MAPPA
