The Undergarments of Chris Nolan’s ODYSSEY?

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Say clickbait on that headline if you want, but guess who has the underwear update on July’s huge box office banger The Odyssey from Warner Bros? These are the side-chats that have opened up in the controversial wake of this massive Summer Blockbuster from iconic Director Christopher Nolan. What’s the controversy?

Since you asked, not often do we hear a Homeric character call his father “Dad.” Not at all common to hear American English. Though to be fair, the Greeks didn’t speak Stratford-on-Avon or Henley-on-Thames either? We revert to the undergarment debrief because it is a fascinating piece of trivia (wait for it); or maybe it’s because almost nobody has the Homeric epic dialed-in on their audio book playlist, or maybe it’s because we American and global audiences are looking for a way in without feeling pretentious?

Widely anticipated, The Odyssey stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron. This epic is produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan, for the pair’s co-venture Syncopy. It’s Executive Producer is Thomas Hayslip. As reported and confirmed, this film was shot on IMAX® cameras for IMAX® movie houses exclusively, a first-ever for any feature film, and will be in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.

Before we ‘see London, see France’ in the knickers’ department, let’s backtrack into Homer’s backstory. With this caveat, an anonymous quote likely mangled here “the sacred often walks through the door of the ordinary,” which is another way of saying? It’s more fun to update Homer, than to Ivory Tower him.

So, here’s our Homie version of Homer…

Homer (c. 8th century BCE), not Simpson, was the MacDaddy of bookish bards, way before Gutenberg, before papyrus. Byzantine scholars and monks saved the work in text from the 10th to 15th centuries, copied down from the ages of oral tradition captured on papyrus somewhere around 300 BCE.

The byline “Homer” may have been more of a handle than an actual single author; some say even an umbrella term for the tall-tale tellers of the Ancient World. But our eighth-century Homer in particular gets the credit for The Iliad and The Odyssey. Then finds himself onscreen as a Nolan picture now.

Imagine the Trio, Nolan, Damon, Homer plus IMAX?

Set for July 17th, Nolan’s The Odyssey is a Warner Bros epic no doubt.

Think of The Iliad as Why We Go to War and the horrible happenings therein; and The Odyssey as what one veteran will do to get back to his own couch. Or the visual at play here might be easier, as in?

Let’s make a chart.

Iliad versus The Odyssey: Theme, Who’s Driving It, Sorting

Without context on the characters, even the best intrepid ticket-buyers might get spun around. You have in Homer’s epic, the homebound Hero Odysseus (King of Ithaca) whose crib (Palace, Queen Penelope) is overrun by gangsters (Nobelmen) from down the block, the worst of which is Antinous.

Homer has generously alerted us to his villain status by baking “anti-“ into his very name. Well-done you, Homer, plus it’s also worth a mention that these homeboys are all from the same hometown of Ithaca.

Anne Hathaway is Penelope, Tom Holland is the lad, and Charlize Theron is, naturally, the odd Goddess.

Official THE ODYSSEY poster from Warner Bros.

But wait, there’s more? The underwear thing. Okay, well, in order to get you this far into the learning curve on Ancient Greek Lit, the hook is a real thing. Matt Damon wears black underwear, possibly even to war. Not tighty whitey, stripes, nor poplin, linen, or plaid. Black underwear, seriously.

If you don’t feel Matt’s self-confessed black underwear choice is enough of a reveal? In the movie, Rob “Twilight” Pattinson made the strange confession recently. Confessed that he requested, not kidding, fur underpants. That would be specifically “Cheetah underwear.” A direct quote, Rob felt he needed to feel it in the loins, perhaps, but not from lions?

Source you ask?

Damon said so in a BBC radio interview. Rob said so too on air. That’s the way this press tour is going for the movie, anything but Greek oral tradition translated into text on papyrus around 750-500 BCE, then cycled through The Alexandrian Standards of 300 BCE, to preservation by bored monks and Byzantine scholars through the 10th to 15th centuries, as mentioned.

Again, this is how the press tour is going. This is How It Started, and after July 17th with any luck, we can say This Is How It’s Going, with banger Mount Olympus size box office receipts over this hot Summer Blockbuster Season.

Because after all, someone needs to keep Homer alive on the shelves (or iPads), right?

Find yourself in the journey here:

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