Elon Musk spent recent days blasting Christopher Nolan’s $250 million adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, attacking the film over castings that are not even fully confirmed yet. The movie is scheduled to reach cinemas on July 17, but Musk posted dozens of times in response to online criticism of the project’s inclusion of Elliot Page as Achilles’ Ghost and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy.
Musk did not stop at commentary. He laughed at an AI-generated image of Elliot Page in Greek warrior garb struggling to open a pickle jar, called out Nolan for what he described as dancing on Homer’s grave, and echoed posts claiming the director had cast Black and trans actors to satisfy the Academy’s representation and inclusion standards for Oscar eligibility. Those standards were announced in 2020 and began applying starting in 2024.
The backlash has grown in the same online ecosystem that often turns casting news into a culture-war fight, and Musk has helped keep it moving. He owns Twitter and has been reported to manipulate its algorithm to drive eyeballs to his account, giving his posts an outsized reach when he chooses to pile onto a controversy. In this case, he also extolled Troy while attacking Nolan’s film and agreed with Matt Walsh’s argument that those on the left would be driven to “murderous violence” if Sydney Sweeney were cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa.”
That dispute has also exposed a basic tension between the old story and the new one. In Homer’s telling, Achilles and Helen of Troy were white and had golden hair, while the modern film has become a target before audiences have even seen whether the cast rumors hold up on screen. Page’s role is not even confirmed yet, but that has not stopped the reaction from hardening into another round of attacks on diverse casting in a major entertainment project.
For Nolan, the fight is now part of the release cycle, not a side issue. The Odyssey is still headed for July 17, and the bigger question is whether a film built around one of literature’s most famous epics can get to opening day without being consumed by the online arguments around who belongs in it.
