Universal Pictures released A Fantastic Voyage, a new featurette for Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film The Odyssey. The movie adapts Homer’s ancient Greek epic about Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his long return home after the Trojan War.
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The Odyssey opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026, with a star-packed cast led by Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o, alongside Zendaya and Charlize Theron. Christopher Nolan wrote and directed the film and produces it with Emma Thomas through Syncopy, with Thomas Hayslip as executive producer.
The featurette focuses on the scale of the production and the physical demands behind Nolan’s approach. Shot entirely with IMAX film cameras and new IMAX film technology, The Odyssey brings Homer’s saga to IMAX film screens for the first time. Rather than presenting the story as a studio-built fantasy, the footage shows a production shaped by real locations, sea scenes, difficult terrain and long days far from conventional sets.
Nolan describes The Odyssey as a massive story and an exciting challenge. The video follows the cast and crew through remote natural settings, where the location work became central to the filmmaking process. Cameras, equipment and costumes had to travel through demanding spaces before filming could begin, turning the production itself into part of the film’s larger adventure.
That sense of scale also comes through in Damon’s comments. He calls The Odyssey the biggest movie of his career and compares the experience to making several films within one production. Each chapter of Odysseus’ journey brought a new location, a new environment and a new set of logistical challenges.
Zendaya points to the same immersive quality. The production took her to places she may never have seen otherwise, while the sea scenes placed her directly inside the conditions of the story. She did not need to imagine herself on a boat because she was standing on one, at sea.
Nolan explains that the team changed countries every couple of weeks, creating a constant sense of movement within the production. The footage shows crew members working with heavy equipment, natural ground and remote settings, while Pattinson adds a sharp detail about the demands placed on the actors. He jokes that a regular Hollywood film might keep base camp seconds away from set, while a Nolan production can require a 45-minute hike in sandals and full costume.
One of the clearest examples comes from the shoot at Nestor’s cave in Greece. Damon says nobody had attempted to film there before. The crew rigged the site and turned it into a natural sound stage, using the cave directly in the production.
A Fantastic Voyage presents The Odyssey through the work required to make it. The Odyssey opens in theaters everywhere on July 17, 2026.
