The Odyssey may have achieved an impressive Rotten Tomatoes record following its massive opening weekend, but some MAGA supporters have found yet another bone to pick with the film.
Director Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic had previously faced criticism from right-wing figures over its casting choices. But now that the film is in theaters, conservative voices seem to have taken issue with one plot point in particular as well.
*Spoilers for The Odyssey follow!*
Late in the film, Odysseus (Matt Damon) reveals his guilt over the sacking of Troy to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway). That vulnerability — along with the implied PTSD Odysseus is suffering from as a result of his actions — has created a point of contention for some MAGA viewers.
“The main struggle for Nolan and his producer wife is that they can’t make the ancient Greeks too heroic, masculine, iconic because that would uphold the Euro-supremacist roots of all Western Civilization ... So you cast a woke manlet as the King,” right-wing cultural commentator Peachy Keenan wrote on X.
What a perfect woke casting recipe for utter failure. I haven’t been to theater for years on end, this kind of garbage is exactly why.
— Mike D🇺🇸🍊 (@raftoregon) July 10, 2026
“What a perfect woke casting recipe for utter failure. I haven’t been to theater for years on end, this kind of garbage is exactly why,” another person wrote, while a third added, “So the Odyssey movie is only in name. The ending was changed and Penelope was made into a whiney woman instead of the cunning woman that outwitted the suitors for years. Athena is a PTSD delusion of Odysseus. Nolan never read the story. He got it from some feminist.”
“Instead of the ‘sacker of cities’ and ‘far the best of all mortals in thought and words,’ Nolan reduces Odysseus to a traumatized, not very clever, self-hating boomer. This is a far greater - and intentional - mistake than some weird stunt casting,” wrote another on X.
The Odyssey follows Odysseus along his perilous journey back home after the 10-year Trojan War. In addition to Damon and Hathaway, the film stars Tom Holland as their son Telemachus and features Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus and Benny Safdie as Agamemnon.
The new controversy is far from the first that has arisen from the film. In January, Tesla founder Elon Musk said Nolan had “lost his integrity” by casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in response to a user on X claiming the “face that launched a thousand ships” was “fair skinned, blonde.”
Nolan’s Odysseus has PTSD from sacking Troy.
— Roman Helmet Guy (@romanhelmetguy) July 20, 2026
Nolan’s Oppenheimer has PTSD from making the bomb.
Nolan’s Batman has PTSD from bats.
Has anyone checked in on Nolan? Is he ok?
“Casting choices that make the premise incoherent are admissions that the story was never the point and an insult to the author,” the user wrote.
Musk again stirred controversy by agreeing with the Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh that “not one person on the planet actually thinks that Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’.”
Billionaire Elon Musk endorsed that assertion, reposting Walsh’s comments and adding, “True.”
“Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman,” he wrote.
“Nolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.”
However, since the film’s theatrical release late last week, Musk has kept mum about the film on X.
