The New ‘Odyssey’ Poster Throws a Bone to All These Armor Complaints

A placing new poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was simply launched, and its that means could be a little more than skin deep. The poster reveals, we assume, Matt Damon as Odysseus, carrying armor and a helmet that, for some cause, appears to have a human backbone working down the neck. Right here’s the poster.

So what the heck does that imply, given the poster makes it such a central picture? Is it merely to look cool, or is it to recommend Odysseus’ personal “spine” and the power of his character? Nicely, from the epic poem by Homer that the movie is predicated on, we all know he definitely did have that spine. The movie will present the Greek king on a 10-year journey house after the Trojan Conflict, throughout which he encounters quite a lot of points, mythological or in any other case.

However greater than that, the poster can also be a placing distinction to the primary picture released from the film back in February. Right here’s a slice of that.

Whereas most of us simply marveled at our first take a look at Nolan’s newest, others have been upset that Odysseus was in a traditionally inaccurate costume. Due to extra trendy cinematic interpretations of historical Greece, we expect everybody at the moment solely wore capes and crested helmets like on this picture. It’s what we count on to see. However that was not truly the case.

In actuality, Mycenaean armor of the period was typically fabricated from bronze, with giant, circular-shaped helmets fabricated from boar’s tusks. So, bone helmets, principally. They didn’t fairly seem like the poster, nevertheless it’s arguably extra correct to the time interval than the picture with the large purple headpiece—and to the outline of a helmet Homer provides as a part of Odysseus’ gear at one level within the Iliad, the place he wears one among these boar-bone helmets in an evening raid on the Trojans. And, when you recognize that some historical past buffs complained about that, making your subsequent poster very bone-centric certain seems like a response.

Nonetheless, you could be questioning, how do we all know all this? Nicely, one massive cause was that some precise historical Greek armor was discovered buried in Greece in 1960. Scientists dated the armor to be from about 3,500 years earlier than that, which might be round when Homer roughly set The Iliad and The Odyssey. Then, simply to ensure it was legit, in 2024, archaeologists replicated that armor to the very best of their talents and did battle exams with it. They realized it labored.

“First, we analyzed Homer’s Iliad and mixed the knowledge that we extracted with physiological and biometeorological information to create an 11-hour fight simulation protocol replicating the every day actions carried out by elite warriors within the Late Bronze Age,” Andreas Flouris, an train scientist on the College of Thessaly and lead creator of the examine, wrote in an email to Gizmodo at the time. “The references in Homer’s Iliad can now be seen as actual recollections, not poetic fantasy.”

Which brings us again to The Odyssey. This new poster, very particularly specializing in bone, may be learn in a number of alternative ways. The character has spine; he’s the backbone of the story. It’s a protracted, treacherous highway. Take your choose. However, additionally, there’s a method to take a look at it as Nolan responding to folks’s criticisms of that first picture. Clearly, the filmmaker is conscious of historic accuracy and needs it represented in his movie. However, additionally, it’s not a documentary. It’s a fantasy epic, so it has to look cool. And this poster does simply that, irrespective of if it’s figurative or literal.

You possibly can see six minutes of The Odyssey in choose IMAX theaters now. Anticipate its first official trailer to be launched quickly. It opens on July 17, 2026.

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