The movie MAGA crusaded against last month for its latest anti-woke campaign is only drawing huge demand despite the whining.
Variety reported that IMAX tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey were in such high demand Thursday morning that theater chain AMC’s mobile application had to pause before it resumed operations. Moviegoers seeking Odyssey tickets on Fandango had a similar experience, with lags and long wait times as fans waited an hour to buy tickets, the site reported.
The news comes after last year’s IMAX pre-sale for the film sold out immediately, despite being a full year from release. The overwhelming interest in the movie did little to dissuade MAGA from arguing that viewers wouldn’t want to see the film because of Nolan’s casting choices.
The Odyssey will bring the Greek epic to the big screen with a cast of A-listers and Oscar winners, including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, and younger stars Zendaya and Tom Holland.
But the castings of Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page drew scrutiny from conservative media personalities and Trump billionaire buddy Elon Musk, who claimed Nolan was “rewriting history” by casting a Black actress as Helen of Troy and a trans actor as Achilles.
Musk, 54, began trolling Nolan since rumors started to swirl about N’yong’o’s casting in January. The billionaire X owner amplified his complaints and those of other users last month when Nolan confirmed the news in an interview with Time.
Musk, who has been accused of manipulating the X algorithm to favor his posts, went on a days-long posting and reposting spree denouncing the film and calling Nolan “racist” for casting the actress. And he wasn’t alone.
Newsmax host Rob Finnerty spent an entire segment of his show complaining that casting a woman of Kenyan descent as Helen was a “rewriting of history.”
“A woman who was definitely white is going to be played by Lupita Nyong’o,” he said. “Helen of Troy was not Black. That’s not me being mean. That’s me telling the truth.”
Right-wing commentator Matt Walsh joined the chorus, claiming Nolan “knew” he’d be criticized if he filled the role of Helen of Troy with a white actress.
Nyong’o, like the fans who are scrambling to buy the film’s most expensive seats, hasn’t batted an eye at the discourse.
“I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not,” she told Elle, adding, “I’m very supportive of Chris’s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world.”
The MAGA men also targeted Page’s rumored casting as Achilles, with Finnerty arguing that the fictional character “was not a five-foot-one woman,” and griping that “to the Left, this is all normal.”
Musk wrote on X that Page’s casting was “One of the dumbest and twisted things I’ve ever heard,” in a reply to an article reporting the rumor.
In more comments, the billionaire raged against the Academy Awards’ Representation and Inclusion Standards, which, if not met, can deem a film ineligible for Best Picture, claiming Nolan cast Nyong’o because he “wants the awards.”
Nolan won Best Picture for Oppenheimer with an entirely white cast in 2024, having met the Academy’s requirements through the film’s production staff.
MAGA’s efforts have done virtually nothing to incite outrage and lower demand for Nolan’s adaptation, which remains as high as it was when tickets sold out last year.
