A striking new poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was just released, and its meaning might be a little more than skin deep. The poster shows, we assume, Matt Damon as Odysseus, wearing armor and a helmet that, for some reason, seems to have a human spine running down the neck. Here’s the poster.
So what the heck does that mean, given the poster makes it such a central image? Is it simply to look cool, or is it to suggest Odysseus’ own “backbone” and the strength of his character? Well, from the epic poem by Homer that the film is based on, we know he certainly did have that backbone. The film will show the Greek king on a 10-year journey home after the Trojan War, during which he encounters more than a few issues, mythological or otherwise.
But more than that, the poster is also a striking contrast to the first image released from the film back in February. Here’s a slice of that.
While most of us just marveled at our first look at Nolan’s latest, others were disappointed that Odysseus was in a historically inaccurate costume. Thanks to more modern cinematic interpretations of ancient Greece, we think everyone at that time exclusively wore capes and crested helmets like in this image. It’s what we expect to see. But that was not actually the case.
In reality, Mycenaean armor of the era was often made of bronze, with large, circular-shaped helmets made of boar’s tusks. So, bone helmets, basically. They didn’t quite look like the poster, but it’s arguably more accurate to the time period than the image with the big red headpiece—and to the description of a helmet Homer gives as part of Odysseus’ gear at one point in the Iliad, where he wears one of these boar-bone helmets in a night raid on the Trojans. And, when you know that some history buffs complained about that, making your next poster very bone-centric sure feels like a response.
However, you might be wondering, how do we know all this? Well, one big reason was that some actual ancient Greek armor was found buried in Greece in 1960. Scientists dated the armor to be from about 3,500 years before that, which is probably around when Homer roughly set The Iliad and The Odyssey. Then, just to make sure it was legit, in 2024, archaeologists replicated that armor to the best of their abilities and did battle tests with it. They realized it worked.
“First, we analyzed Homer’s Iliad and combined the information that we extracted with physiological and biometeorological knowledge to create an 11-hour combat simulation protocol replicating the daily activities performed by elite warriors in the Late Bronze Age,” Andreas Flouris, an exercise scientist at the University of Thessaly and lead author of the study, wrote in an email to Gizmodo at the time. “The references in Homer’s Iliad can now be seen as real memories, not poetic fantasy.”
Which brings us back to The Odyssey. This new poster, very specifically focusing on bone, can be read in a few different ways. The character has backbone; he’s the spine of the story. It’s a long, treacherous road. Take your pick. But, also, there is a way to look at it as Nolan responding to people’s criticisms of that first image. Clearly, the filmmaker is aware of historical accuracy and wants it represented in his film. But, also, it’s not a documentary. It’s a fantasy epic, so it has to look cool. And this poster does just that, no matter if it’s figurative or literal.
You can see six minutes of The Odyssey in select IMAX theaters now. Expect its first official trailer to be released soon. It opens on July 17, 2026.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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