Spoilers for The Odyssey can be found throughout this article, and this comment is not a Trojan horse. Don't say I didn't warn you!
A lot of people like to refer to The Odyssey as a Greek tragedy. However, if you’re familiar with the original writing or have seen Christopher Nolan’s work, you should know it’s an Epic poem and not a tragedy. In fact, the 2026 movie release version has a happy ending, though the characters go through trials and tribulations in the years leading up to the end.
The one big question Christopher Nolan’s new Odyssey movie doesn’t answer is one fans have been asking as the movie premieres: What was Odysseus’ ultimate fate?
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey Ends On A Hopeful Note … Sort Of
After cleverly constructing the Trojan horse and invading Troy, Odysseus (played by a very bearded Matt Damon) and his men are ready to return home to Ithaca. Eager to do so as quickly as possible, they take a less-trodden path, and it turns out to be a disastrous decision, at least for the crew. Odysseus’ men are picked off through various trials and tribulations, including a run-in with a Cyclops, succumbing to sirens, and angering a god after eating his sacred cows.
The god's anger causes the crew's ship to be broken apart, and Odysseus washes up alone, spending nearly seven years with Calypso (Charlize Theron) before he is ultimately able to journey back to Ithaca. Back home, he challenges and murders the suitors who had been sniffing around, reunites with his family, and reclaims his throne. He treaties with his wife Penelope and tells her of the horrors he feels are coming to mankind following the Trojan War, but says they will brave them together.
Nolan’s The Odyssey ends with Odysseus and Penelope (Anne Hathaway) literally sailing into the sunset, hoping to sail off and pay tribute to the ones he lost along his journey. I do love that the movie ends on a peaceful note after so much devastation (even though the boat scenes themselves were rough to film in this movie). It feels earned despite Odysseus’ worries about the age of man and what is coming ahead.
The Fate Of Odysseus And How He Dies, According To The Lore
Christopher Nolan’s movie does miss key points in The Odyssey, and its changes from Homer's work have been widely debated. In one change, Odysseus reunites with Penelope thanks to an icon he carried, when in Homer's work she asks him to move an immovable bed. In the poem, there’s another subplot similar to the one with Zeus’ cows in the movie in which Odysseus’ crew unleashes some wind from a bag that had been gifted to Odysseus to help them on their journey home. This is left out of the movie.
In a third example, we do meet Circe (Samantha Morton) in Nolan's film, but that storyline is stuffed into one day. In Homer’s work, Odysseus charms Circe, and he and his men stay on her island for a year. This is actually an important distinction for reasons that will become clear.
There was once another poem following The Iliad and The Odyssey that chronicled what happened next. It’s called The Telegony; it was not written by Homer, and it’s been lost to history. However, subsequent versions of Odysseus’ tale explain what is essentially the sequel to The Odyssey. In this version, Circe and Odysseus have at least one child together, a son named Telegonus (not to be confused with Telemachus, whom Tom Holland plays in Nolan’s film).
Telegonus grows up with Circe, and upon entering manhood, goes out into the world to seek his father. Various versions of the story exist after this. In one, a prophecy that he'd be killed by his son has made Odysseus an embittered and suspicious old man, one who’d sent Telemachus away thinking that child would be his undoing. Yet it’s Telegonus who appears and kills Odysseus.
In another, Telegonus raids Ithaca thinking he is elsewhere on the planet. Many versions of this story end with Telegonus killing his dad without realizing he’s killed the very person he was seeking. Odysseus’ fate is to die at the hands of a son he didn’t even know. This story is the one that is very much the tragedy.
So, I see why that’s not the note Nolan wanted to end on. Plus, given the movie's three-hour runtime, I don't think this movie could have realistically handled another storyline. However, if this version of the story piques your interest, Madeline Miller rewrote it beautifully in her novel Circe, a book I would very much recommend.
Ultimately, the way Nolan weaves his story gives us more than just many vivid set pieces. We really feel like we’re with Odysseus through this long and convoluted journey, and we’re rooting for him to get home. It’s complicated, of course. The man can’t just walk in and reclaim his fiefdom. His return is marred by violence, and he knows there are bad things still to come. But we want him to find his place with Penelope, and live out their dream of sailing off into an unknown future.
