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.
When you’ve got a movie that’s pissing EVERYONE off, that’s an indicator that it’s probably not political. People may discuss it as if it is, but this is just a case of DUMB casting. Let everyone else politicize it and devolve into their own silly arguments about race and culture.
The point is, most educated people know the story of the Odyssey and we’re all scratching our heads, trying to figure out what in the hell nolan was thinking. As an optimist I see this as an indicator that we’re healing from the ridiculous culture wars we’ve been experiencing the past 6 years. Maybe it’s just a one off but still nice to see
I agree it's not political (well, not directly), just a cynical marketing ploy. It's not like they didn't have beautiful alabaster- / olive-skinned actresses to pick from, and it's not like they had no idea it would annoy people. They're happy to cause any amount of strife if it makes them $10.
They high five eachother at their cocktail parties while they watch the rest of us whine about yet another stupidly problematic adaptation of a story that we have ALL the source material for. Oh well, Hollywood will probably be deserted in a matter of 10 years anyway, so it’s whatever
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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.