We know there’s major pushback, in some corners of the internet, over the casting in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” That’s not disputed. The detractors are loud and incessant, but whether this backlash affects the film’s box office numbers remains to be seen.
That’s why tracking has been all over the place for “The Odyssey.” It’s really hard to tell how severely the online vitriol translates into reality. The numbers have been all over the place because, quite frankly, nobody seems to know how much of this backlash is genuine audience sentiment and how much is simply online noise.
The hate for this film appears to be rooted in disagreement over Nolan prioritizing diversity over traditional or historical expectations. It’s not that Lupita Nyong’o lacks the talent to pull off Helen of Troy—au contraire, she’s incredibly talented—but rather that she’s playing a character traditionally understood to be a white woman. Add Elliott Page to the mix, and you have all the ingredients for a perfectly calibrated online culture-war.
The discourse first escalated when Elon Musk amplified criticism of the Nyong’o casting, taking to X and claiming Nolan had “lost his integrity,” and was “an anti-white racist.” That reaction sparked an even larger counter-response.
However, that was months ago. I was certain that the campaign against “The Odyssey” was running out of gas, but it looks like it hasn’t. Case in point: the recently released final trailer on Universal’s YouTube channel now sits at 611,000 dislikes against just 68,000 likes, a 9-to-1 ratio (Source).
All the top-rated comments under the trailer were negative as well. This has led to Universal locking replies on its platforms after the dislikes surpassed 500,000, suggesting the studio is well aware of the backlash.
According to Global Box Office, “The Odyssey” trailer is now the second most disliked Hollywood trailer ever, with an estimated 80% dislikes, bested only by—you guessed it—the Rachel Zegler-led “Snow White,” which had 90% dislikes. Not even the much-maligned “The Last Jedi” has a ratio that comes close to those two.
It seems that, since the social media embargo broke on Monday and the glowing praise came in, the dislikes have gone into overdrive on the trailer, with more than 300,000 thumbs-down in the last 72 hours.
It certainly didn’t help that Monday was also when Lupita Nyong’o, who plays both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, stated in an interview that if she could meet the ancient Greek poet Homer, she would grill him about the lack of screen time and representation given to women in “The Odyssey.”
Universal’s marketing department must have been banging their heads against the wall, as her comments only poured more fuel on the fire.
Regardless, we’re ten days away from “The Odyssey” hitting theaters, and Universal must certainly be a tad nervous about all this hatred being directed at the film. The review embargo will lift on Wednesday, and critics will probably be high on it, which means another opportunity to boost momentum and silence the venom.
Not more than 24 hours later, Guy Ritchie’s role offer to Markle has now reportedly been withdrawn. The story goes that they don’t want her in the show anymore “after intense backlash in the U.K.”