Get hyped for Nolan's The Odyssey with these 8 epic Greek mythology movie and TV adaptations
From stop-motion monsters to a Coen brothers classic
Christopher Nolan’s latest opus arrives in cinemas on 17th July, and this time he’s looking to ancient myth for inspiration.
The director of Inception and Interstellar has never wanted for ambition, but with The Odyssey he really is reaching for the stars. Not only does the movie adapt a foundational text in modern literature – and indeed culture – but it also represents one of the most technically ambitious productions ever.
Nolan has used his biggest budget yet (a cool $250 million) to shoot entirely using the 70mm IMAX format – the first film ever to do so.
Throw in the director’s insistence on shooting on location and with practical effects, not to mention a ridiculously extensive cast (Matt Damon, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland among them), and The Odyssey is shaping up to be one of the biggest movies of its generation.
The closely related worlds of cinema and TV have long used Greek mythology for inspiration, of course, whether though broadly faithful adaptations or playful riffs on deeply embedded texts.
Here, then, are some of our favourite Greek mythology movie and TV adaptations.
1. Troy (2004)
Christopher Nolan himself was initially hired to direct this 2004 adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad – the events of which lead directly into those of The Odyssey. Don’t call it a prequel. The studio ultimately opted to award the project to Wolfgang Petersen, leaving Nolan with a lingering sense of unfinished business that would ultimately lead to his latest project.
In the event, Troy itself is far from a perfect film, but it’s an undoubted thrill to watch a prime Brad Pitt’s pouty warrior Achilles going up against Eric Bana’s stout-hearted Prince Hector – with Brian Cox’s hammily haughty Agamemnon raging on the sidelines.
2. Kaos (2024)
Kaos is another to add to the list of promising Netflix shows cruelly cut off ahead of their time. The fact that it didn’t receive a second season shouldn’t put you off watching this bracingly fresh take on Greek mythology, however.
The concept is simple: what if the Greek pantheon was real and ruling over modern society? These gods and goddesses are precisely as capricious and avaricious as the Hellenic forms we’re all familiar with, memorably led by Jeff Goldblum’s Zeus – part needy gazillionaire tycoon, part ruthless dictator.
3. Hercules (1997)
We’d venture that no mythological Greek character has been placed onto the big or small screen as often as Heracles. The prototypical superhero went by the Roman version of his name in this 1997 Disney animation, and that was far from the only liberty that they took with the source material.
Still, this snappily paced adventure has come to be regarded as something of an overlooked gem in Disney’s stellar ‘90s catalogue, thanks to its impressive animation, snappy humour, and memorable villain (Hades, voiced by James Woods). If nothing else, this is the only list entry you’d show to a young child.
4. Blood of Zeus (2020–2025)
This blood-soaked animated Netflix series positions itself as a lost tale from Greek mythology. It’s an original creation, of course, but it uses the Gigantomachy – the fight between the gods and giants of Greek mythology – as its backdrop, and has a clear love for the source material.
Lead character Heron is another of Zeus’s half-human sons, pressed into service to fend off a demon army. There are three seasons of this beautifully animated show to sink your teeth into, which is good going for a modern Netflix show.
5. Clash of the Titans (1981)
Desmond Davis’s 1981 epic is likely to have been the first contact with Greek mythology (at least in a cinematic context) for many Gen-Xers and older Millennials. Loosely based on the on the story of Perseus, it stars Harry Hamlin as the half-human son of Zeus, with various members of acting royalty (Laurence Oliver, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith, Ursula Andress) in support.
The true stars of the movie, however, are Ray Harryhausen’s jerkily expressive cast of stop-motion monsters, from Pegasus the winged horse to the ship-crushing kraken.
6. The Return (2024)
You wait years for an adaptation of The Odyssey, then two come along at once. Well, not quite. The Return landed in 2024, for one thing, and it doesn’t tell the whole story of Odysseus’s protracted return journey from the Trojan war. It’s a much smaller scale affair that focuses in on an old, battered Odysseus as he finally arrives home to find that not all is well in his realm.
Ralph Fiennes puts in a fine (arf) performance as the wily-but-weary war vet, while Juliette Binoche plays his embattled wife with typical poise.
7. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Here’s another cinematic romp through Ancient Greek mythology that’s been greatly enhanced by the stop motion brilliance of Ray Harryhausen (see also Clash of the Titans).
The visual effects maestro’s practical model work might look rather quaint to a modern eye. But you just watch the movie’s most famous scene, where a gang of skeleton warriors rushes our questing hero and his companions. It’s genuinely thrilling stuff – and downright unsettling to boot. In truth, Don Chaffey’s film is full of such memorable set pieces, which is why it’s held up as a classic example of the genre.
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
How does a quirky Coen brothers film about a trio of petty criminals escaping a chain gang in 1930s Mississippi have anything to do with Greek mythology? Fans of the film will know that among its many-layered delights, O Brother, Where Art Thou? tracks the plot of The Odyssey quite closely.
We have seductive sirens, a hulking cyclops, and a main character named Ulysses – the Romanised version of Odysseus – who yearns to return to his wife Penny (Penelope?) before she remarries. Nolan might be taking a more direct approach to adaptation, but he’ll do well to create a film half as memorable.
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