Christopher Nolan’s next epic, The Odyssey, is currently in production. One of the stars, John Leguizamo has spoken about what it’s like to be on a Nolan set, and it’s not quite the same as working on other blockbusters.
During an interview on Morning Joe on MSNBC, Leguizamo was asked about becoming part of Nolan’s upcoming movie. The hosts joke about Nolan being pretty far-flung from the world of independent filmmaking, but Leguizamo believes the Inception and Tenet director still maintains that energy.
“He’s got a crazy budget, it’s not small,” Leguizamo states, “but he runs it like an indie film, because he’s not doing it by committee, he’s not doing it by what the studio says. He’s like an indie filmmaker, but with crazy money.”
Even though Nolan is operating on top-level money (all of his movies since The Dark Knight have cost $100 million or over), you can see the logic here. The filmmaker usually writes and directs his own work, and if there’s source material, it tends to be from history rather than based on any contemporary IP. The only time he’s ever made a sequel was in The Dark Knight trilogy.
He’s a true rarity in Hollywood, where his involvement is enough to justify funding something, whatever the scope, because people love to go see his films in cinemas. Beyond how reasonable Leguizamo’s answer is here, it’s clever because it avoids talking about what’s actually happening with The Odyssey.
Matt Damon is leading the picture, as Odysseus, and he’s joined by Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, and an incredibly stacked list of other actors. Much like Oppenheimer, Nolan’s gathered a lot of A-list talent.
The Odyssey is due to open on July 17, 2026, so it might be a little while before we hear anything more concrete. Leguizamo is currently promoting Bob Trevino Likes It, out now in cinemas in the US. Check out our upcoming superhero movies list to see what other cinematic heroism is on the way.
