Wed 3 Jun 2026 05.32 EDT Share Legendary figures … Matt Damon as Odysseus and Zendaya as Athena in The Odyssey. Photograph: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures “It is true, there’s a sense that the world’s impression of Greeks is more Zorba than Achilles,” says Greece’s leading film critic Thodoris Koutsogiannopoulos. “I find it disheartening, and a lazy cliche, that the majority perpetuates, over more sophisticated iterations of what Greekness really is … It would be nice to see a Greek or two among the star cast, but it would be a surprise if it occurred.” Many – myself included – assumed Nolan’s epic might buck the trend, might elevate at least one actual Greek actor from comic relief. After all, Homer isn’t short on characters. Instead, when you get past the superstars – from Matt Damon (who has just been flaunted, Greek god-like, on a column plinth for GQ’s newest shoot) as the wily Ithacan, to Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal, to supporting actors Himesh Patel, Will Yun Lee, and Travis Scott – it’s evident that Nolan selected his cast to be “representative of the world”, in the words of Nyong’o. An honourable intention. But for us Greeks, it makes our absence even more glaring – especially in the year’s blockbuster event. If your film sets out to represent the world, wouldn’t it be obvious to fill one space at this large, wonderfully multicultural table with the people who are most authentically connected to the source? The irony is, those who shout the loudest about “authentic” casting failed to notice there isn’t a single Greek in the film. Not that it matters to the likes of Musk and his sinister motives – but he couldn’t have got it more wrong. For Greeks, the omission takes on another meaning: that ancient Hellenic stories are viewed as part of a shared western inheritance – a world literature – while the Greeks are somehow incidental to them. At worst, it suggests modern Greeks (particularly after decades of economic crisis) are no longer viewed as worthy custodians of these stories – a sentiment not unlike the logic used against returning the Parthenon marbles. Nolan’s film also arrives at a different moment to previous sword-and-sandal movies, like 2004’s Troy. Hollywood treads carefully to pay cultural adaptations their dues, and this isn’t lost on Greeks. “That’s all we are talking about,” one friend in Athens, involved in cinema, said to me. “In Hollywood, Greek stories seem uniquely exempt from the representation conversations now surrounding other cultural inheritances.” None of us are counting on leading roles. But Greece’s film industry is quietly flourishing – with Yorgos Lanthimos, Athina Tsangari, and others, introducing homegrown actors like Angeliki Papoulia. As for our diaspora, Theo James’s turn in The White Lotus proves he’d make a charismatic Antinous. Had Nolan wanted, the talent was there; it’s unlikely any actor today rejects that call. View image in fullscreen