Christopher Nolan's upcoming epic The Odyssey might be one of the most highly anticipated new movies of 2026, but it has faced its fair share of backlash.
Everything from costumes to casting has been questioned – but, luckily, Nolan isn't bothered, thanks to his experience with Batman.
"Comes with the territory," Nolan told The Telegraph of the furor. "But look," he added, "these conversations that happen before people see the film – they're always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet."
Nolan directed three Batman movies – his acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy – which helped make the storm easier to weather. "But remember," he said, "I spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman.
"When I came on to Batman Begins, writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents. And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can't worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honour the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can," he explained.
Considering the Dark Knight trilogy is widely beloved and judged some of the best superhero movies of all time, it worked out in the end.
"In the end, fans of the property – even when we were doing something that was not what they would have done – enjoyed the sincerity of the attempt to put as good a version of it on screen as we could," Nolan continued.
And, after all, this is Nolan's version of the story. "All I can do is make the best film I possibly can in the most sincere way. It's very different from how anyone else would do it, but that's what adaptation is," the director said.
The Odyssey is an adaptation of Homer's epic poem of the same name, and you can find out everything you need to know about the source material in our The Odyssey beginner's guide.
For even more, check out our current ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies.
