Christopher Nolan Almost Made 'Troy'—Now He’s Come Full Circle With 'The Odyssey'

Christopher Nolan's path to Batman almost took a very different turn... through ancient Greece.

The director recently confirmed that Warner Bros. initially hired him to direct the studio's epic Troy more than two decades ago, following his successful transition into studio filmmaking with Insomnia in 2002 (per Variety).

The studio wanted to keep him in-house after his indie breakthrough with Memento, but the project slipped away when director Wolfgang Petersen came calling.

Petersen, of Das Boot, had originally developed Troy, but when Warner Bros. decided not to proceed with his planned Batman vs. Superman project, he requested the sword-and-sandals epic back.

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The studio agreed, leaving Nolan with his hands empty.

It turned out to be one of Hollywood's most fortunate hiccups. Warner Bros. offered Nolan Batman Begins as what co-writer David S. Goyer later called a "consolation prize" on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Variety).

Petersen's Troy premiered in 2004, starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and Orlando Bloom, and grossed nearly $500 million worldwide despite mixed reviews. Petersen went on to direct only two more films.

Nolan's Batman Begins hit screens in summer 2005, kicking off what would become one of Warner Bros.' most acclaimed franchises and the launching point for serious comic book adaptations (not to mention a creative career that has continued getting bigger and bigger).

But Nolan never forgot about the ancient world.

He told Empire Magazine that the Trojan War setting stayed with him for decades.

"As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with—Ray Harryhausen movies and other things—I’d never seen that done with the sort of weight and credibility that an A-budget and a big Hollywood, IMAX production could do."

That decades-long fascination is finally coming to fruition.

Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey, set for release July 17, 2026, returns him to Greek mythology with a reported $250 million budget. The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Tom Holland as Telemachus, and features an ensemble including Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron.

The production is a technical milestone as the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film cameras. Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema developed new equipment to make the ambitious shoot possible, filming across locations in Greece, Morocco, Italy, Scotland, Iceland, and Western Sahara.

Sometimes the projects that don't work out lead somewhere even more interesting. Nolan got his superhero trilogy and, two decades later, finally gets his Greek epic, too.