Director Christopher Nolan weighed in on the MAGA meltdown over his upcoming film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.
Nolan brushed off the “irrelevant” criticism in a new interview with The Telegraph ahead of the epic film’s July 17 release.
His comments come after MAGA commentators—including X owner Elon Musk—trashed the film for months over Nolan’s choice to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and trans actor Elliot Page as the Greek warrior Sinon.
The film also stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland.
Musk, Newsmax host Robert Finnerty, and more have slammed the film, which isn’t out until July 17, as a “rewriting of history” and Nolan as “racist” for casting a Black actress in a fictional Greek character’s role.
Nolan was dismissive of the complaints on Friday.
“Comes with the territory,” he said. “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.”
The Oscar-winning director compared the negative commentary surrounding the film to his helming of the Batman trilogy. “Remember, I spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman,” he said.
“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 learned over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all,” he explained. “What you have to do is honor the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.”
Despite Nolan’s cavalier attitude about MAGA’s crusade against The Odyssey—which sold out its first round of tickets a year in advance and crashed ticket-sale apps when sales opened this year—the movie studio has taken note. Universal restricted comments on the film’s official X account following a barrage of hateful posts.
Musk has used the platform to engage with posts calling Nolan “racist against Greek people” and trolling the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which he claims influenced the director to cast a “diverse” actress in order to meet Oscars eligibility requirements.
Nolan won Best Picture for Oppenheimer, a film with a mostly white male cast that met diversity standards through its production team.
Musk has not let up on his replies to posts slamming Nolan and The Odyssey, however, ensuring the negative commentary continues circulating until the film premieres on July 17.
