“The Odyssey” Trailer Draws Views & Debate

The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” reportedly pulled in more than 121.4 million views across social media platforms in its first 24 hours according to Forbes.

Analytics firm WaveMetrix calculated the numbers, indicating the view count more than doubled the 50 million views that Nolan’s last film, “Oppenheimer,” earned in its first 24 hours.

Views were spread across TikTok (27%), YouTube (26%), Facebook (21%), Instagram (18%) and X (10%). It was Universal’s most-watched trailer this year, ahead of the first “Wicked: For Good” trailer at 113 million views in its first 24 hours.

“The Odyssey” was also the eighth most-viewed trailer this year in a 24-hour span, behind films like “The Devil Wears Prada 2” along with the live-action remakes of “Moana” and “Lilo & Stitch”.

The hits come as the trailer has sparked major debate about the film’s historical accuracy. Greek Reporter has done an assessment of that aspect.

They also take into account that this is a mythological/fantasy tale and Homer’s original poem, which has been translated/retranslated over the years, was itself somewhat anachronistic in nature – the apparent late Bronze Age setting incorporating elements of Homer’s own much later Archaic Era.

They indicate some elements, like Odysseus’ armor and the ships, get things at least partially correct but not entirely. Either way, it’s going to be something that will be debated about through the film’s release.

Others have complained that for a film shot entirely in IMAX, it’s not clear why IMAX or Universal didn’t release a 4K trailer, let alone one in the larger IMAX aspect ratio?

“The Odyssey” will open in theaters on July 17th 2026.