Summary4 min read

Instant Classics BONUS: Mary & Charlotte on the Trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey

Podcast: Instant Classics
Host: Vespucci
Guests: Mary Beard, Charlotte Higgins
Date: February 3, 2026

Episode Overview

In this bonus episode, famed classicist Mary Beard and culture writer Charlotte Higgins share their first impressions of the trailer for Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. The discussion centers on the challenges of visualizing such an iconic ancient epic, the interpretive choices evident in the trailer, and what these choices reveal about timelessness, location, and the enduring relevance of Homer’s story.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. First Impressions of the Trailer

Surprise at Visual Focus (Heaving Male Muscle)
- Both Mary and the unnamed commentator (likely Charlotte) note a strong emphasis on “heaving male muscle” in the trailer, which feels at odds with their own mental imagery of the Odyssey.
- Quote (Mary, 01:46):
  
  “Why was I surprised by how much heaving male muscle there was?...when I think about the Odyssey … my immediate thought is of a singular male character moving through the world and encountering lots of different scenarios, lots of different peoples, lots of different women actually. And I didn’t get that. The trailer confounded my sense of what I think about when I think about the Odyssey.”

Timestamp: 01:10–02:40

2. Difficulties of Adapting the Odyssey

Universality and Viewer Expectation
- The Odyssey is deeply embedded in collective imagination, making any adaptation inherently contentious:
  - Quote (Unnamed Male Commentator, 02:40):
    
    “It is so embedded in a lot of people’s kind of image of myth, the ancient Greek world...that actually visualizing it is a real struggle...almost every viewer who knows the Odyssey is going to say, ‘But that’s not what the Odyssey’s about.’”
The Problem and Possibility of Time
- The epic’s elusive chronology is a core challenge—and potential—when bringing it to screen.
  - Quote (Unnamed Male Commentator, 03:16):
    
    “One of the things that always slightly destabilizes the modern reader is knowing quite what the time scale is, where the Odyssey is set. I mean, we’ve got an epic ... probably in the end 8th century BC but it’s looking back to something which is the 12th century BCE...So what is the timing of the Odyssey?”
Notable Visual Decisions & “Timelessness”
- Nolan’s choice to blend classical armor with elements resembling science fiction is seen as a deliberate way to underscore the story’s timeless quality:
  - Quote (Unnamed Male Commentator, 04:10):
    
    “There was a very striking image at the very beginning of the trailer of a warrior who was clad in kind of almost sci-fi armor equipment, kind of riffing a little bit off a Greek tradition, but much more riffing off a sci-fi tradition...Surely, Nolan is trying to think about the timelessness of the Odyssey, that you can’t pin it down.”

Timestamp: 02:40–06:05

3. Sense of Place and Landscape

Locations Filmed in Scotland
- Mary reveals that much of the trailer’s scenery was shot in northeast Scotland—not the Mediterranean.
- She embraces the harsh, ambiguous landscape as fitting for the Odyssey’s atmospheric needs.
  - Quote (Mary, 06:05):
    
    “I quite liked the...harshness of the landscapes that we just glimpsed. And there was tremendous atmosphere with Odysseus and his men making their way into a terrifying dark cave or encountering a bleak and terrifying landscape which might have been the underworld and the cave, might have been the Cyclops cave. We don’t know. These were just tasters and hints of atmosphere. And I think, you know, he’s creating fascinating atmosphere.”
On Authenticity
- Mary points out that there’s no agreed-upon “correct” location for many of the Odyssey’s landmarks, so the choice of setting becomes a creative liberty rather than a factual misstep.

Timestamp: 06:05–07:20

4. Irony in Odysseus’s Quest

Narrative Irony Highlighted in the Trailer
- A line in the trailer has Odysseus claiming his primary goal is to “get my men back home.” The panelists note the deep irony, as anyone familiar with the story knows only Odysseus himself returns.
  - Quote (Unnamed Male Commentator, 07:20):
    
    “There was an irony, though, when we hear Odysseus saying, you know, the important thing for me was to get my men back home. Anybody who knows the story of the Odyssey knows that none of Odysseus’s men make it back home.”

Timestamp: 07:20–End

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Mary, on the trailer’s physicality:
“Why was I surprised by how much heaving male muscle there was?...The trailer confounded my sense of what I think about when I think about the Odyssey.” (01:46)

Unnamed Male Commentator on timelessness:
“Nolan is trying to think about the timelessness of the Odyssey, that you can’t pin it down. We are going to be in a world in which we don’t quite know what century we belong in.” (04:23)

Mary, on landscape and mood:
“I quite liked the...harshness of the landscapes that we just glimpsed...he’s creating fascinating atmosphere.” (06:22)

Unnamed Male Commentator, on literary irony:
“Anybody who knows the story of the Odyssey knows that none of Odysseus’s men make it back home. The only person who makes it back home is Odysseus.” (07:24)

Final Thoughts

Analytical and Playful Tone: Mary and Charlotte maintain a probing yet playful conversational style, applying their deep classical knowledge to a modern pop culture artifact.
Continuing Questions: The trailer’s choices prompt more questions than answers, especially regarding how Nolan will handle the tensions between historicity, myth, and contemporary relevance.

For listeners: This episode is a richly informed, engagingly skeptical take on how Nolan’s trailer chooses to visualize Homer’s epic—inviting both admiration for its ambition and curiosity about what’s to come in the full film.

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Transcript15 lines

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[01:11]
Mary
So, Mary, the Odyssey trailer, Christopher Nolan's movie is out in the world now. The film's released in July and I think we've all seen the trailer. I'm curious to know what you thought of it.
[01:24]
Unnamed Male Commentator
Well, I've looked at it several times and it's, I have to say it's always very hard to judge a movie from its trailer. But I'm going to confess that for me, there was perhaps a bit too much of heaving male muscle in this minute and a half. I don't know about. Don't know what you thought.
[01:47]
Mary
Why was I surprised by how much heaving male muscle there was? And I tell you for why, it's because when I think about the Odyssey, you know, my immediate, you know, say the Odyssey, my immediate thought is, or the immediate image is of a singular character, a singular male character moving through the world and encountering lots of different scenarios, lots of different peoples, lots of different women actually. And I didn't get that confounded. The trailer confounded my sense of what I think about when I think about the Odyssey. It's not that the heaving flesh that Christopher Nolan has given us in this trailer isn't in the Odyssey. It is in the Odyssey. It's just not what kind of seems the most quintessential.
[02:41]
Unnamed Male Commentator
That's obviously what's difficult about putting the Odyssey on screen. And it's proved very difficult for many filmmakers who've tried to do it that it is so embedded in a lot of people's kind of image of myth, the ancient Greek world, you know, the modern world, or at least the kind of sense of how we see ourselves in relation to the past, that actually visualizing it is a real struggle, I think, because you're always going to come up against, you know, almost every viewer who knows the Odyssey is going to say, but that's not what the Odyssey's about. I thought, though, there was some interesting hints about what Nolan had seen as the problem of the Odyssey, or the problem of visualizing the Odyssey, or you might say, not the problem, but the excitement of visualizing the Odyssey. But one of the things that always slightly destabilizes the modern reader is knowing quite what the time scale is, where the Odyssey is set. I mean, we've got an epic which is composed but not yet written down, probably in the end 8th century BC but it's looking back to something which is the 12th century BCE. It still gets kind of worked on probably through up to the 5th century BCE. So what is the timing of the Odyssey? Where does the Odyssey belong chronologically? And I thought that there were little hints in the trailer that Nolan was trying to take that on board. I mean, when I watched it first, I was kind of on the lookout for the armor, right? And there's some good classical Greek armor that you see, you know, probably 6th or 5th century BC, but there was a very striking image at the very beginning of the trailer of a warrior who was clad in kind of almost sci fi armor equipment, kind of riffing a little bit off a Greek tradition, but much more riffing off a sci fi tradition. And I first thought, oh, do I like that? And then I thought, well, actually, what's going on here, surely, is that Nolan is trying to think about the timelessness of the Odyssey, that you can't pin it down. We are going to be in a world in which we don't quite know what century we belong in. And that's why, in some ways, that's why the Odyssey is interesting that we never do know exactly where it's set. That's why it can still mean something in part to us. It isn't locked in the 12th century BC by any means, is possibly using these visual clues to help us take that on board. We shall see that that's what I got out of that strange figure.
[06:05]
Mary
And for me, there was also. I was intrigued by the sense of place as well as the sense of time. I happen to know that a lot of the place that we saw in that tiny little few minutes of trailer is northeast Scotland, right the coast of Northeast, sort of Mauritia and Banffshire, in a way, the complete opposite to the Mediterranean and to Ithaca. But actually, I quite liked the. I don't really care that it's not set in the. That it's not filmed in the. Precisely the. Whatever the correct locations might be, because let's face it, there are no correct locations. We don't really know where these places are with any kind of certainty. I liked the harshness of the landscapes that we just glimpsed. And there was tremendous atmosphere with Odysseus and his men making their way into a terrifying dark cave or encountering a bleak and terrifying landscape which might have been the underworld and the cave, might have been the Cyclops cave. We don't know. These were just tasters and hints of atmosphere. And I think, you know, he's creating fascinating atmosphere.
[07:20]
Unnamed Male Commentator
There was an irony, though, when we hear Odysseus saying, you know, the important thing for me was to get my men back home. Anybody who knows the story of the Odyssey knows that none of Odysseus's men make it back home. The only person who makes it back home is Odysseus. So I assume that that irony is going to be very much built into the movie.