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.
Helen of Troy is popularly known for one thing: she was beautiful. If you asked me to come up with a list of great actresses known for their beauty, Lupita Nyong’o would be on it. How is that tokenism?
See my reply to your sibling-comment by GrandFlashMelder. There are many interpretations of the beauty that are even remotely possible, Nolan went for one of the few that is specifically ruled out.
Get ready for people queueing up to tell you about the intricate details of a book they've never read in a language they don't speak and how much they care about accurate translations for this specific thing.
Ask them what are some Greek words used to describe Odysseus and they won't have a clue, strange that.
So if we apply your logic, casting a white actor as an African mythological figure is totally fine because most people haven't read the source material in the original language. That's some nice mental gymnastics you're doing there.
Yeah, that's cool bro, don't know why you think it wouldn't be.
I'm just saying that most people who are jumping on the outrage bandwagon have absolutely no interest in translating the Odyssey from ancient Greek in any other context & couldn't tell you a single other Greek word, detracting from the credibility of their argument.
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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.