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Christopher Nolan movies have been known to push the envelope across a number of production departments, and I expect as such with his upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey. But, one area we don’t talk about enough is the number of unconventional movie scores Nolan movies have had. And some interesting details have just come out around The Odyssey’s own music, and what Christopher Nolan didn’t want for it.
Christopher Nolan's Request For The Odyssey Score
The Odyssey’s score is composed by Ludwig Göransson, who just received his third Academy Award at the 2026 Oscars for his Sinners score. The Swedish composer has been rolling with Nolan on his past few movies starting with Tenet and their last collaboration being on Oppenheimer. Here’s what Göransson had to say about what it was like working with the beloved filmmaker for The Odyssey:
The first conversation we had was Chris telling me that he wanted something completely unique for this film. No orchestra. No familiar sounds that you’ve heard before in a movie like this.
When it comes to sword-and-sandal flicks like The Odyssey, the only way I imagine the score sounding is with a traditional orchestra. So, I totally get why Christopher Nolan wanted to challenge that norm with his own take on the genre. It must have been a bit daunting to Göransson to hear this at first... but then again he's made some rather groundbreaking scores in his career already. As he added:
I knew that in order to create this completely original world, I also had to get out of my comfort zone and find sounds that I haven’t worked with before.
Ludwig Göransson got his start doing pretty expected scores on the comedy series Community, but has since made some of the most memorable themes in the past decade for the likes of Black Panther and The Mandalorian. It certainly sounds like he rose to the occasion this time as well.
How Ludwig Göransson Made The Odyssey’s Music Unique
So what can we expect from The Odyssey score? Ludwig Göransson said he got some great ideas from Nolan with these words:
Chris had mentioned earlier that he was interested in aulos. He was interested in lyre… Another thing that Chris mentioned too early in our conversations was to use bronze. You know, this is the Bronze Age. So gongs, for example, made of bronze. You can make these instruments sound the way you never heard them before.
Now, this is the kind of ingenuity that makes Christopher Nolan and Ludwig Göransson some of the most celebrated talents in the business! The composer decided to do some research on the types of instruments that were popular during the Late Bronze Age. After he went down the rabbit hole, two of the main instruments used on the film’s score ended up being the aulos (pictured above) and the lyre. They actually used literal bronze as well. You can check out more behind-the-scenes about The Odyssey in the YouTube video below:
The Odyssey already feels like one of the most anticipated 2026 movie releases of the summer, but then tidbits like this come out, and my excitement only grows. I know I’ll be appreciating the score even more once it hits theaters on July 17 now that I know more about the story behind it.
