Christopher Nolan is one of the biggest proponents of the big screen experience, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the first teaser trailer for The Odyssey is playing exclusively in theaters.
It's an effective, intriguing teaser, but nothing about it really demands that it be watched on the biggest screen possible. Universal Pictures must have been aware that people would record the trailer on their phones, but what the studio likely didn't anticipate was there being 4K copies readily available on social media.
Someone managed to encode the trailer's source file, leading to a 4K quality IMAX format version being published on X and Reddit late last night/early this morning. Universal is acting fast to take them down as quickly as they appear, hitting accounts with copyright strikes and takedown requests.
Still, it's not that hard to find.
So, when will the trailer be officially released? For now, Universal will likely be hoping it gives Jurassic World Rebirth a boost over the long Fourth of July weekend. In Oppenheimer's case, the teaser was attached to screenings of Nope on July 21, 2022 and released online a week later on July 28.
If Universal heads down that route, then we could get an official teaser for The Odyssey on July 8 or 9. However, it's worth noting that in the case of Tenet, a trailer hit theaters in August 2019 but wasn't shared online until December of that year.
We've spoken to multiple people and learned that Universal's original plan was for The Odyssey trailer to be released in August, giving it at least a month of exclusivity in theaters. That was before HD and 4K copies started doing the rounds online, of course, so we'll see if those ultimately force the studio's hand.
As a reminder, the trailer opens with a shot of the sea, and a voice that says, "Darkness. Zeus' law smashed to pieces. A kingdom without a King since my master died. He knew it wasn't a winnable war, and then somehow, somehow, he won it."
Jon Berthal's character can then he heard stating, "I know nothing of Odysseus, not since Troy." Tom Holland, who is clearly playing Telemachus, replies, "I have to find out what happened to my father. When did you last see him?"
The actor's face is shown after shots of a beach and men on horses racing towards a large black horse that may have broken off a ship or something similar. He appears to cry as Bernthal's character (Antinous, perhaps) responds by shouting around the room, "Who has a story about Odysseus? You? You have a story? Some say he's rich, some say he's poor. Some say he perished, some say he's in prison. What say you?"
"In prison?" Telemachus asks, prompting Bernthal's character to declare, "What kind of prison can hold a man like that?" After a few more shots of soldiers, we see Matt Damon's Odysseus at sea, floating on a piece of wreckage—a raft, perhaps—unconscious or dead.
The cast of The Odyssey includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, and Mia Goth.
"Christopher Nolan’s next film The Odyssey is a mythic action epic shot across the world using brand new IMAX film technology," Universal Pictures revealed last December. "The film brings Homer’s foundational saga to Imax film screens for the first time and opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026."
The Odyssey arrives in theaters on July 17, 2026.