The Right Spent Months Attacking Two Casting Choices in Nolan’s ‘the Odyssey.’ the Movie Just Opened, and the Whole Thing Was Based on Stuff That Isn’t in It
by Jerome London · Thought CatalogUpdated 2 minutes ago, July 18, 2026
Elliot Page doesn’t play Achilles in “The Odyssey.” He plays Sinon, Odysseus’ cousin and a key figure in the Trojan Horse ruse, a role no one on the right had confirmed before spending weeks insisting a trans man had no business as the hero of the Trojan War.
The outrage started back in May over two casting choices. Christopher Nolan picked Lupita Nyong’o, who is Black and of Kenyan descent, to play Helen of Troy, and he cast Page, who’d already worked with him on “Inception,” in a part everyone assumed was Achilles.
Newsmax host Rob Finnerty called it a “rewriting of history.” Elon Musk called it “one of the dumbest and twisted things I’ve ever heard” and kept tweeting about it for days.
Helen is a mythological figure, not a real person, and Homer never specifies her skin color. Black actresses have played her before, including Eartha Kitt in Orson Welles’ 1950 staging of “Dr. Faustus.” She’s also barely in the movie, appearing for a few minutes of the 173-minute runtime, along with her sister Clytemnestra, whom Nyong’o also plays.
Entertainment critic Nick Schager, who’s seen the film, laid out how thoroughly it undercuts the complaints in a piece for The Daily Beast published July 16. The film is projected to win the weekend box office and could become only the third 2026 release to open above $100 million.
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