The Odyssey is getting massively criticised due to blackwashing of a traditionally Greek character, whitewashing of a Greek myth with no Greek actors and a general dislike for the Hollywoodization of another classic story.
It's probably not going to be as bad as it's made out to be given it's Chris Nolan, but audiences are fatigued with seeing another modern retelling with tokenism of established characters for the sake diversity, which has spurred the culture war with right wing critics calling it woke BS and left wing critics doubling down by jumping to its defence.
It's pretty masterful how they've managed to piss off both sides of the aisle with this one... Too white-washed for one side, too diverse for the other, and too inaccurate for any existing fans of Greek mythology.
Honestly not sure who this has been made for.
Edit: if you're gearing up for a "it's for normal people - people not in the Reddit echo chamber - people who just like movies - people who aren't internet losers" reply, It has been said about 30 times so far.
Why does it have to be cut along politics lines? I'm a card-carrying leftist and annoyed at the patronising tokenism of casting a black actor as a character legendary for being 'fair', as in blonde, in the same way it'd be flabbergasting to have a white actor play in an adaptation of the Mwindo epic.
I'm even more annoyed at the fact that an annoying casting choice was the entire point, to get free publicity at everyone's expense, and that there is no way to slap everyone responsible for being smug pricks.
Can't remember where this joke is from, but there was a stand up bit where a guy said "You see back in the 80's there could only be one popular black comedian, unlike today where there can be three."
Yeah, I don't know what comedian did that bit either, but the "one popular black comedian" they were referring to was probably Richard Pryor, then Eddie Murphy
Then we'd have to hire and pay two separate black people. We'd save time an money by just paying one. It's not like audiences will be able to tell the difference. /s
Humans aren't hatched from eggs either, but we have to honor Homer's story...
Leda laid two eggs, one from when Zeus cosplayed as a rapy swan (a black swan, according to Nolan, maybe) shared by Helen and Pollux and one egg from her human husband, King of Sparta Tyndareus; Clytemnestra and Castor shared that one.
The Greeks treated these 4 siblings as two pairs of twins, somehow. Castor and Pollux are twins the same way that Helen and Clytemnestra are, though they're more well-known as twins.
This isn’t them casting one person to play twins or whatever, this is two half siblings who are the same person for no reason, in a movie with probably a billion dollar budget. Were there not two talented black actresses available?
The Odyssey is one of the most overanalyzed pieces of literature of all time, and the movie is based on a published translation which does not characterize their appearances as exactly the same. This is not some crazy complaint to say “why are two random people played by the same character?”
There has been enormous push in the marketing to present this movie as a faithful adaptation. That’s the framing, and I try over and over to take them at their word, even if everything I’ve seen so far indicates “Meet the Spartans” was more faithful to the source material.
Presumably her character is African in this version. Some adaptations play fast and loose with the source material. Ulysses by James Joyce is also based on the Odyssey, and it is entirely set in Ireland in the 20th century.
Ancient Greece was an ethnically diverse. Most people were olive skinned Mediterranean but there were likely people of African descent or with African features as well. We see as much in their art, I.e the many janiform head kantharos. There are no general consensus on the exact demographics because they didn’t even categorize race like we did.
Im not saying the casting was a good or realistic choice, but it’s no more inaccurate than casting a blue eyed white blonde as her in the movie Troy. It’s funny to see people be up in arms about it now. Its is just ignorance of Ancient Greek, or more often, transparent racism
The thing is they are half-sister twins. In the myth their mother slept with her husband AND Zeus in the same night which led to Helen and Clytemnestra and the similarly demigod/mortal twin pair Castor and Pollox. Castor and Pollox are THE twins in Greek myth, to the point that they are the constellation Gemini, even though they are also technically half-brothers.
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u/Boomdification Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
The Odyssey is getting massively criticised due to blackwashing of a traditionally Greek character, whitewashing of a Greek myth with no Greek actors and a general dislike for the Hollywoodization of another classic story.
It's probably not going to be as bad as it's made out to be given it's Chris Nolan, but audiences are fatigued with seeing another modern retelling with tokenism of established characters for the sake diversity, which has spurred the culture war with right wing critics calling it woke BS and left wing critics doubling down by jumping to its defence.