MAGA Said The Odyssey Would Flop. Whoops!

Summary

Bulwark Takes

Episode: MAGA Said The Odyssey Would Flop. Whoops!

Date: July 22, 2026
Host: Sam Stein (with Sonny Bunch and Will Sommer)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the right-wing backlash against Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film, The Odyssey. The Bulwark team examines the roots and reasoning behind conservative outrage online, contrasts it with the film's massive commercial and critical success, and discusses what the controversy says about today's culture wars. The conversation highlights the cyclical outrage machine of right-wing social media, the split among conservatives, and the recurring debates over casting choices, artistic license, and "woke" accusations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Success of The Odyssey

• The Odyssey opens to $124.5 million in ticket sales (US/Canada), making it the biggest domestic opening of the year for a live-action film, only behind Toy Story 5 and Super Mario Galaxy in overall movies ([00:46]).
• Despite box office triumph, there's a major online backlash from MAGA-aligned social media.

2. The Right-Wing Backlash Breakdown ([01:38]–[05:06])

• Algorithmic Outrage:
  • Sam Stein describes how engagement with even one anti-Odyssey post morphs your social feeds (“my entire algorithm became flooded with Elon Musk styled takedowns of the Odyssey for being too woke” [01:38]).
• Core Complaints:
  • Casting of Lupita Nyong’o (a Black woman) as Helen of Troy—deemed by critics as an ahistorical "woke" move.
  • False rumors about Elliot Page playing Achilles—Sonny Bunch clarifies Achilles isn’t in the film and Page's role is minor ([02:18]).
  • The use of Emily Wilson’s "feminist" translation as a basis—viewed by some on the right as “too woke.”
• Online Drama vs. Real Life:
  • Sonny Bunch: “Twitter not real life, turns out Twitter not real” ([04:56]).

3. Escalating Culture War Talking Points ([05:06]–[10:16])

• Other triggers: Travis Scott’s casting, “insufficiently Greek” armor/sets, absence of Greek actors, and conspiracy-mongering about box office and review site manipulation.
• Matt Walsh’s Review (Quote):
  • "Movies just as woke as you fear, if not more so. The DEI casting is atrocious... Nolan's decision to turn Odyssey Odysseus into an anachronistic, whiny, solemn shell of a man plagued by trauma..." ([06:00])
• Will Sommer notes—top right influencers predicted a flop, now facing reality denial: “I was told by Tim Pool or whoever this thing was gonna flop. One thing I want to flag...they’ve been mad about [Emily Wilson’s] translation for years...” ([07:05]).
• Sam & Will discuss new conspiracy: claims studios are buying out tickets/juicing Rotten Tomatoes ratings ([08:05]).

4. Rational Conservative Voices & Intra-Right Division ([11:31]–[17:24])

• Sam Stein introduces Dave Rubin as an exception:
  • “There was nothing woke in it... There was two or three odd casting choices... Lupita Nuongo were barely in the movie, I would say combined had about eight minutes of screen time.” ([11:49])
• Sonny Bunch on the right’s outrage machine:
  • “You build an outrage machine, you never know which way it’s going to go.” ([12:32])
• The episode contrasts the most virulent culture warriors with more rational or reluctant conservatives (Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro).
• Ben Shapiro’s take: Nolan is "the greatest living director," the film is "extraordinary" despite some irritation with casting ([16:13]).
• Will Sommer points out:
  • “There’s a kind of divide between these guys who are just going to get mad about anything and someone who thinks a little more strategically, like Ben Shapiro.” ([17:24])

5. The “Anachronism” Argument & Artistic License ([18:15]–[21:11])

• Sam Stein challenges the expectation of strict historical accuracy—relates to other famous historical/fictional adaptations ([18:15]).
• Sonny Bunch: “That’s film. ... What if, you know, one of the things that these folks have been hitting on—a pseudo-controversy—is a total nontroversy because it’s not real.” ([18:51])
• Dismantling the idea that casting for diversity is for Oscar quotas—Nolan’s Oppenheimer broke this notion ([19:30]).

6. The “Bronze Age” and Online Rightwing Identity ([21:16]–[22:18])

• Will Sommer on the special place of ancient Greek epics in the online right:
  • “For guys who are extremely into the online right, the Bronze Age is their thing. ... So they don’t get as fired up if it’s like a Jane Austen thing... It’s specifically that it’s the Bronze Age, in part, that has riled them up so much. It’s kind of like Gamergate... you’re coming into our zone.” ([21:16])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sonny Bunch:
  • “Twitter not real life, turns out Twitter not real. Not real.” ([05:06])
  • “You build an outrage machine, you never know which way it’s going to go.” ([12:32])
• Dave Rubin:
  • “There was nothing woke in it. There was two or three odd casting choices...I would say, combined had about eight minutes of screen time.” ([11:49])
• Will Sommer:
  • “These guys...want to be mad all the time.” ([13:26])
  • “For guys who are extremely into the online right, the Bronze Age is their thing.” ([21:16])
• Sam Stein (warning):
  • “Do not click on that Matt Walsh tweet. Your algorithm is going to be destroyed.” ([22:56])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 00:46 | Introduction to The Odyssey release and backlash | | 01:38 | Explanation of right-wing outrage and social media | | 02:18 | “Woke” casting, Elliot Page rumors, Twitter drama | | 05:06 | Non-cinematic complaints, summary of MAGA hysteria | | 07:05 | Conspiracy theories: Rotten Tomatoes & box office | | 08:30 | On claims about studios buying tickets (“possible?”) | | 11:49 | Dave Rubin’s rational review | | 13:26 | Conservative infighting, divide in responses | | 16:13 | Ben Shapiro’s supportive review | | 18:15 | Artistic license vs. “historical” complaints | | 21:16 | The online right’s “Bronze Age” fixation | | 22:56 | Final jokes, warnings about online echo chambers |

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Structure of the Show

• The show's tone is witty, exasperated, and sharply critical toward the orchestrated outrage, with some gallows humor about the cyclical nature of right-wing culture war attacks.
• The mood is lighter in places (banter about repeat viewings, Nolan’s directorial style) but always pointed when dissecting the propaganda and backlash.

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Conclusion

The Bulwark team’s consensus: The MAGA right misjudged the public’s appetite for outrage over The Odyssey, and their furious campaign both failed to dent the film’s box office and highlights the performative aspect of contemporary culture war battles. In the words of Sam Stein, “Do not click on that Matt Walsh tweet. Your algorithm is going to be destroyed.” The episode closes with a mix of relief and exasperation at the manufactured hysteria—and a hearty recommendation to see the movie for yourself.

Transcript

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[Sam Stein]

everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor of the Bullock. I'm joined by Sonny Bunch and Will Sommer. We're going to be talking about the Odyssey and the backlash, the ridiculous backlash, the over the top backlash that has happened online among the maga right towards this Christopher Nolan soon to be classic. Let's just set the stage here. The Odyssey. It's open to incredible success, commercial and acclaimed success, $124.5 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada from Thursday through Sunday. It will be easily the biggest domestic opening of the year for a live action film, ranked third behind the great Toy Story 5, which is a Sonny Bunch favorite of course, and Super Mario Galaxy movie, another Sonny Bunch favorite.

[Sonny Bunch]

No, no, I will. I'll put up with Toy Story 5, but not super Mario Galaxy. Don't. Don't slander me that way.

[Sam Stein]

I will never besmirch you like that. And yet online you if you just followed mag accounts or some mag accounts, I shouldn't say all mag accounts. You would think this is like one of the greatest affronts to literature. The classics, humanity really in modern cinema. I had the unfortunate experience of retweeting or no, I like clicked on one Matt Walsh tweet and my entire algorithm for the for you section became flooded with Elon Musk styled takedowns of the Odyssey for being too woke. So Sonny, what exactly is the problem with the Odyssey according to these people?

[Sonny Bunch]

It's interesting that you mention what happened with the Twitter algorithm for you because I've noticed the same exact thing since the movie came out. Like I wasn't tw tweeting about it a ton. You know, just kind of standard stuff. But then I started this weekend as the numbers were rolling in and the the algorithm is incredibly Odyssey juiced. It is. It is Odyssey maxing on Twitter right now. And like most of this, most of this is very negative because that's what Elon really wants to push. He wants to push that this movie is woke trash. That it's a violation of all we hold dear by having Lupita Nyong', O, who is a black woman, play Helen of Troy, which is a casting choice that would never happen, certainly would never happen in a 1950s adaptation of the film by, by Orson Welles or anything like that. That certainly wouldn't happen. The other thing is the casting of Elliot Page as a, as a Greek soldier was. So there was fake news. There was like actual fake news about this for weeks and weeks. People were saying, oh, this is Achilles. Christopher Nolan has cast Elliot Page as Achilles. And Elliot Page has many great qualities as an actor, but is a very small person. Like is not, is not a big brawny warrior. And they were like, oh, this is ridiculous. This is wokeness, blah blah blah. Turns out not actually Achilles. Achilles is not in the movie at all. Achilles is. I don't believe I did not see Achilles on screen once. I don't think in the sacking of Troy, Agamemnon is prominently featured. And then there's a bunch of kind of nameless, faceless Greeks rushing into Troy and of course Odysseus and his men running around doing things. No Achilles. So there, there were all, there were these two kind of separate controversies and, and the, the third kind of ancillary thing which I think, you know, I, I don't know how many people who were complaining about this have read any translation of the Odyssey, but there was a lot of talk about Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey being the one that was used. And of course she's a woman and it's kind of revisionist and it's a little more feminist. So it's too woke. We can't have that. And I, they, the, the right wing shud brigade was pretty convinced that they are going to tank this movie, that it was not going to do well. It didn't matter that the pre sales were the best pre sales of all time. That like AMC's website crashed. The only time it had crashed like that before was when Taylor Swift was doing a kind of one night only concert or one weekend only concert thing and then she expanded it to more weekends, whatever. But the, the like AMC couldn't keep up with the, the, the demand for these tickets. The Imaxes are sold out all over the country. It is, it's in multiple formats. It's gonna, it's doing huge numbers, as you said. And it will probably continue to do pretty good numbers because the pre sales remain very good. But all of this, all of this just goes to show that Twitter not real life turns out Twitter not real. Not real.

[Sam Stein]

There's a couple other things that have stood out among the critics and I'm gonna go to Will after this. One, Travis Scott is cast in this. People didn't like that he's black. Two is apparently the. The armor and the ships are not Greek enough. And they're. And also I should just add to that, there are no Greek actors apparently in here. And people are very upset about that. They're very, very despondent that they didn't have Greek actors in here. I referenced Matt Walsh. This was the lengthy post he put up last night that got my algorithm all hot and bothered. Says just saw the Odyssey. Despite what you may have heard, literally all of the criticisms by conservatives were entirely correct. Movies just as woke as you fear, if not more so. The DEI casting is atrocious, completely takes you out of the story right from the beginning. But even worse than that is Nolan's decision to turn Odyssey Odysseus into an anachronistic, whiny, solemn shell of a man plagued by trauma. Traumas in quotes. Why is trauma in quotes? And guilt. It's impossible to overlook these flaws because the film itself is not terribly entertaining or well constructed. For the most part, it's disjointed, dull, self serious, disenchanted somehow feeling both verbose and overly rushed at the same time. This feels. This tweet feels over both verbose and overly rushed. The dialogue is some of the worst I've ever heard. And quote critically acclaimed film. Why is criticize that? In quote, quote on the nose and quote clunky are descriptions that can't even begin to describe the script. This is Homer, guys. At no point in the story does Nolan even transport the audience into the ancient world. You never feel like you're 3000 years P in the past. You feel like you're watching modern Americans put a. Put on a pageant, because you are. Nobody would be calling this thing a masterpiece if it was made by a director not named Christopher Nolan. I. Yeah, that tweet sucks. Will, what. What have you been witnessing online?

[Will Sommer]

Well, you know, look, I'm obviously very steeped in the right wing algorithm in the media. And I was like, I don't know, this movie might be a flop. You know, Sargon of Akkad, all these guys are mad about it. And, and you Know, then it came out, and I was surprised. I thought, oh, my gosh, it's doing so well at the box office. I was told by Tim Pool or whoever this thing was gonna flop. One thing I want to flag about Emily Wilson, the. The translator here is she also has, like, millen. And they've made a lot about this. They, oh, my God, this is like HR Millennial woke lady and someone let her do a translation. They've been mad about her translation for years. Obviously, it's getting a lot of attention now because of this movie. So they were not happy about it. And yet, despite the success of this film, the conspiracy theories, now they're starting to think maybe it was still a flop. Maybe. Maybe, you know, I can still live in this sort of reality of my own choosing.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Can you get into that? Because there's, like, some, like, people are accusing, like, Rotten Tomatoes of being juiced and stuff like that.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. So a couple things. So, you know, the critics obviously have responded well to this. So there have been accusations that the studio has to be secretly paying the critics. People going to theaters and saying, well, you know, it looked like it was sold out when I bought the tickets, but it looks like maybe there are some more empty seats. So, in fact, you know, it must be. The studio is secretly buying all of these seats.

[Sam Stein]

Is that even possible?

[Sonny Bunch]

Is it possible? Is it. Is it possible? A lot of things are. A lot of things are possible, Sam. I could go to a movie theater right now and buy all the tickets. I guess that's the thing I could do.

[Sam Stein]

Chris Nolan's out there just buying those tickets.

[Sonny Bunch]

His wife and producing partner, Emma Thomas, is like, we got to juice these stats. They'll never let us make another movie. No, I mean, look, is it possible? It's possible. It's funny, because we had some of the same conspiracy theories. When Sound of Freedom was putting up numbers, a lot of. There were people who were like, this movie can't possibly be making money. Right wing people aren't showing up for this. The studio's buying out the theaters, blah, blah, blah. And that was also fake news. The. The argument that Rotten Tomatoes is juicing the stats. I don't under. I don't actually understand the argument because Rotten Tomatoes has three different measures. They've got a critics rating, four different measures. They got top critics and all critics, but let's just say one. One critics rating, which is, I believe, 95% right now. They have two different audience rankings. They have. They have a verified audience rating with. Which is based on people who Rotten Tomatoes can certify purchased a ticket. So if you purchase a ticket, you can put in the I don't know exactly how it works. I'm not. I don't. I've never used it before. But you can put in the data and then you can go to a link and it'll let you vote, you know, thumbs up or thumbs down on the movie. That number is actually higher than the critics number. That number is 97%. The verified audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 97%. So again, maybe Emma Thomas has purchased all these tickets and is like clicking the thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes too. I don't know. But the, but the all the all audience. So this is the non. The non verified audience is 92% fresh or something like that. So like even with probably some downvoting efforts, this, this movie is blowing past expectations on all fronts.

[Sam Stein]

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[Sonny Bunch]

not

[Sam Stein]

everyone on the right has decided that they're going to decide that this is just the greatest affront to classic literature and a woke orgasm on screen. There is Dave Rubin, who seemed to like the film. We can play Dave Rubin, right? Yeah, let's play Dave Rubin. Talking about the Odyssey.

[Dave Rubin]

I just want to say one quick thing about the movie. It was spectacular. It really. I tweeted it was a masterpiece. I tweeted it was an absolute masterpiece. The responses were psychotic. If you go on Twitter and look at the responses to that tweet, psychotic. And I don't know if it was, you know, people were like, did you get. Who bought you out? Who paid you to say this and everything? I don't know. I went to a movie with a couple friends. Then I had a thought about the movie, but there was nothing woke in it. There really wasn't. There was no woke messaging. There was two or three odd casting choices. I thought the casting was a little bit off, but Elliot Page and Lupita Nuengo were barely in the movie. Movie, I would say, combined had about eight minutes of screen time.

[Sam Stein]

That seems totally rational. And yeah, it's like.

[Sonny Bunch]

It's really interesting to hear him say that because he does feel it. You guys saw Oppenheimer, right? You know the end of Oppenheimer where Cillian Murphy, J. Robert Oppenheimer, he's telling Albert Einstein that he thinks he destroyed the world and he has this kind of despondent look on his face like the machine that he has created. Yeah, yeah, that's. You build an outrage machine, you know, you never know which way it's going to go. I just, It's.

[Sam Stein]

Is there something to that though, Will? Like, it feels like we spent so much time over the last couple years talking about woke cancel culture and it's. I mean, there's certainly real elements to that. Right. Like that that was a thing. And people obviously recoiled at that. Are we now in like the inverse where on the right. If you don't have things, you know, as white as humanly possible, I suppose. And, and, and, and not liberal in any sense. The cultural connotations that people are just going to freak out about it.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. I mean, first I just want to say I love the idea that Christopher Nolan, the one guy he would need to buy off is Dave Rubin. He would say, I need Rubin. That's where this movie's gonna be a success or not based on him. But, you know, there is this idea, I think these things in the past that were not really politicized. You know, people almost like wouldn't think of them as a thing to complain about, like, you know, a black woman being cast in a role. It just Wasn't really seen as like a MAGA culture war thing. Now people are used to being mad about that. And you see people like Dave Rubin, also Ben Shapiro, which I get into, almost like begging their ideological compatriots. Can we not get on the wrong side of this mega popular thing? Do we need to make this a political thing? Can't we just, I mean, look, you know, in another light. Conservatives should love that. You know, there's a big movie about war and masculinity and all this stuff. But, but there is this sense, I think, that like they just have this kind of very active, relatively small base that is just wants to be mad all the time.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I don't know. There's been elements of that, I suppose. I remember like the big Keurig coffee freak out a couple years back. Do you remember that one where like Sean Hannity threw his carriage coffee machine? I forget what that was even about, honestly. What was that about? Do you remember? No clue.

[Will Sommer]

I, I can't even remember. I mean, another example would be like the Bad Bunny halftime show where, yeah, you know, the people were really fired up and then someone, Dylan Mulvaney in

[Sam Stein]

the Bud Light ad. Obviously that was a big one. You know, that's why you have Elliot Page and people forgetting about Elliot Page. So there is some to, there's something to it, but it does seem a little bit more intense now.

[Sonny Bunch]

I'll say one thing, one thing that has been interesting to watch is over the last few years there have been these movies that have come out that this, this group of conservatives have really attacked and have not done well. Right. Like movies like Snow White or the new Supergirl movie. You know, you can, you can look back. Strange World, an animated film. And, and the argument was, you've like, we're, we're going after these movies because they're too woke. There's the lesbian kiss and Lightyear. We can't have that. You know, Snow White has. This Hispanic actress was talking about how much she hates the original. We don't, we don't want to go see those movies. And even at the time I was, I, I, my argument was always, nobody wanted those movies. No, like nobody, those movies were not going to succeed because they were remakes that nobody wanted or they were, they were original animated, which hasn't done well post pandemic, whatever. And I think they got a little high on their own supply. Like they, they were making this argument to themselves that we can, we can take anybody down. We can take anybody down. And then they were like, well, let's take down Christopher Nolan, who is the biggest name in filmmaking right now. There isn't. I, I don't think there's an actor who even comes close to him. He's kind of sui. Generous right now. They're like, we can take him down. We, we are powerful enough to do this. And it, that was wrong. That was, that was an incorrect supposition.

[Sam Stein]

Well, and will reference Ben Shapiro, but I mean, that's basically. Ben Shapiro sort of concedes this. He says, I'll read a couple of these tweets, says Nolan is the greatest living director and it's not particularly close. So, you know, he, he acknowledges that after seeing the film, he said, I wanted to hold my opinion on the Odyssey until I'd seen it. I know, weird. So here it is. It's a grand spectacle with a fascinating moral course. It's extraordinary. Also, the actor shouldn't have said dad. And the casting of Ellie Page is a pebble in the shoe. Irritating, bothersome and unnecessary. He then put out a very long tweet, I'm not going to like, get super into. But he, he was incredibly complimentary of the movie. So there is a kind of division happening. And it's weird because it's happening in like the usual fissures. Right. Like, you know, I'm not saying these are the same things, but like, Ben Shapiro is very much on the different side of certain foreign policy debates as these MAGA conservatives. So I'm like, is this like a realists versus, you know, fabulists kind of divide? I don't really understand the divisions.

[Sonny Bunch]

I wanted to ask Will about this because I feel like this is the real, where the real split is here. It feels there's a lot of, like, if I know where your, what your position on Israel is, I've got a pretty good idea of where you're going to come down on this film.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, I, I think there's a lot to that. I, I think there is a sense also we have to keep in mind that there's kind of this like right wing culture war industry that is very focused, as Sonny mentioned, on being mad about the latest Disney original or what have you. And so for someone like Ben Shapiro, he's kind of beyond that. He's like a foreign policy thinker. He's, he's like sort of a power broker in some ways. Whereas you have these guys who are like, have YouTube channels, whatever, they get mad about movies as their job. And that industry in general has kind of been suffering in the past few years you have people like the quartering, you know, a guy named Tim Pool, all these people who are saying, like they are actively saying, you know, we don't get the views. We used to getting mad about SJW influence at Disney or whatever. So I think for. There's this kind of divide between these guys who are just going to get mad about anything and someone who thinks a little more strategically, like Ben Shapiro.

[Sam Stein]

This might seem like a rhetorical question, but it's to Sonny and I'm going to ask anyway. Like the idea that this film is flawed because it's an echo anachronistic and, and that it's just not a proper depiction of what real Greek life was like 3,000 years ago or whatever. Like that's film. I mean, that's film, right? Like Braveheart, they didn't all wear kilts. You know, Romeo and Juliet wasn't set in Miami. You know, like what, what are we talking about? Robin of Prince of Thieves. Kevin Costner like didn't even bother to have an English accent in that one. He just kind of stilted American accent, like, sure. Isn't that film?

[Sonny Bunch]

Yes, for the most part, yes. I mean, look, there's exactly one filmmaker today who is making a movie. If you, if somebody told me Robert Eggers was making a homeric film, I would expect them to have shot the thing with, you know, clay tablets or whatever. Like it was. It's a, you know, that's. He's the one guy who, you know, would make sure that there were no plants, you know, that didn't exist in, you know, the Turkey and 1800 BC or whatever, whatever the, whatever the. So I would say, I would. There, there is that guy. Everybody else is just like, we're making movies and what we're doing, especially when we're making a 250 million dollar three hour epic movie is we're going to start, we're gonna have it star the biggest stars and we're gonna have the best actors in it and we're going to trust this filmmaker who has proven that he can do these things. What if, you know, one of the things that these folks have been hitting on a pseudo controversy that is a total nontroversy because it's not real. Elon Musk has suggested over and over again that Christopher Nolan has only done this to win Oscars. He, he needs to hit a diversity quota to win Oscars. And they point to the diversity rules in the, the Oscar rules. There, there is a four prong test. It's like a Supreme Court test. There's a four prong test. You got to hit two of the prongs. Well, I don't know if you guys remember this, but he made a little movie called Oppenheimer a couple of years back. Oppenheimer won a few Oscars, including Best Picture. And Oppenheimer had the whitest cast I think I've ever seen in my life. Like, there were no minority actors in that at all. Like, and that movie won tons and tons of Oscars. And that movie was out during the. During the time period when these diversity rules were in effect. He didn't need to cast these people for. For diversity purposes. He cast them because they're the best actors. They're the most interesting actors who can do really interesting things in these roles. And anybody who argues otherwise doesn't know a thing about. About film. And one of the very funny things that's been watching, I, you know, again, I, I get. I get the same algorithmic stuff you guys do. So I've seen a bunch of these, you know, complaints about the diversity quotas. Every one has a grok correction under it, every one of them, and has not impacted. Elon Musk, a wit. He does not care about Grok. He is ignoring Grok. Pay attention to your AI bot.

[Sam Stein]

That's not in his playbook. All right, well, I'm gonna go see the movie on Friday. I know Will is not.

[Will Sommer]

Could I just add something here? The unique thing I think also is worth keeping in mind is for guys who are extremely into the online. Right. The Bronze Age is their thing. As Sam and I have discussed, there's a very prominent figure named Bronze Age pervert in this universe. These gu love talking about this kind of like Nietzsche and vitalism from the Homeric epics. This idea of, I'm going to go raid this village and take their women, that that's how things should be so they. They don't get as fired up. You know, if it's like a Jane Austen thing that has some multiracial casting, it's specifically that it's the Bronze Age, I think, in part that has riled them up so much. It's kind of like Gamergate, where they were like, you're coming into our zone, the boys club, video games, or in this case, the Odyssey.

[Sam Stein]

So if, like, Nolan were to do an adaptation of Alexander the Great, like, they wouldn't give a.

[Will Sommer]

Wouldn't that be mad? No, that's like, roughly the same world I think they mad about. Yeah.

[Sonny Bunch]

You know, what's your problem with Macedonians, Sam.

[Sam Stein]

I want to know when their age, what period of time they care about, when it starts and when it ends, so I can avoid it. I don't want to get into these stupid debates. All right. I'm seeing the movie on Friday. Will's not seeing it.

[Will Sommer]

It's too woke.

[Sam Stein]

Sonny, how many times are you gonna see the movie?

[Sonny Bunch]

Let's see. There are 700 different formats, so I have 699 times left to go.

[Sam Stein]

Are you gonna. You're gonna go a couple more times, I bet, right?

[Sonny Bunch]

I will see it at least. I'll see it at least two more times in theaters. Let's be honest. That's about my average. With Nolan, it's, you know.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, well, I'm excited. I still haven't seen Tenet, and I'm not planning to, so just, you know, you got.

[Will Sommer]

I know.

[Sam Stein]

I don't want to get into the whole Nolan thing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm a prestige guy. All right. Will Sommer, Sonny Bunch, everyone else who watched, thanks for enduring this. Do not click on that Matt Walsh tweet. Your algorithm is going to be destroyed. Avoid doing it. Instead, subscribe to the Bulwark later.

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