Everybody’s buzzing about this newly announced project, so I thought I’d lay down a few markers about how I think this is going to play out. Please note, I don’t have any inside information nor do I necessarily approve of the decisions I’m describing below, this is just a few thoughts from someone who finds both the Odyssey and Nolan’s movies to be kind of interesting.

-There are no visible gods, although we may see stuff that the characters interpret as divine intervention. For instance, the Phaecians might have their harbor blocked by an earthquake, and interpret it as Poseidon’s revenge for helping Odysseus (Matt Damon, playing a combination of his characters from Interstellar, The Martian, and the “present day” parts of Saving Private Ryan).

–Scheria, land of the Phaecians and their thought-propelled ships, is possibly reinvented as some kind of extra-feminist Wakanda(1), with Zendaya as Nausicaa and Lupita Nyong’o as her mother Arete, and King Alcinous taking a backseat to the two women. There are people hyping these two ladies for Calypso and Circe respectively, but Zendaya and Lupita both give me a very down to earth vibe, not exotic or eerie at all, although obviously people who automatically think women of color are exotic will disagree.

-Nolan is going to handle this as subjectively and nonlinearly as possible, which means that Telemachus (probably Tom Holland) is the main POV character, who hears about his father’s adventures from other people. He is paired with Nausicaa in some legends, so him traveling to a damaged Scheria where everyone hates his father’s guts because of Poseidon’s revenge, and Nausicaa befriending and telling him why, makes sense.

–This means we never get an “objective” view of Odysseus’s adventures, or his possible infidelities to Penelope. Did he come onto Circe (Charlize Theron in Evil Queen mode) or did she come onto him? What about Arete? At the end of the day, all we get is Odysseus’s declaration of love to Penelope (Anne Hathaway in Interstellar mode), and his slaughter, with his son’s help, of Penelope’s suitors. (The most prominent of the suitors, possibly a composite of Antinous and Eurymachus, is probably played by Robert Pattinson).

—Circe, Calypso, and the Lotos-Eaters are all composited into one episode in this version, due to their thematic similarities. There may or may not be magic beyond drugs involved. The sirens may or may not be composited into this episode as well.

-Something like the Cyclops episode has to happen, because it sets up the curse that appears to follow Odysseus home. Proteus and the bag of winds are frequently dropped from adaptations, but in a version where Odysseus is constantly spinning yarns, it might make sense to include it. The adventure of Scylla and Charybdis, with its “Cold Equations” style discussion of minimizing casualties when you cannot eliminate them, seems like something that would appeal to Nolan (similar ideas crop up in Interstellar). Ditto Odysseus’s interactions with the dead (possibly composited into the Druggie Land episode mentioned above).

-If Michael Caine doesn’t come out of retirement to play Odysseus’s father Laertes, the role will probably go to the director’s uncle, John Nolan.

(1)Nolan could of course go full “United Colors of Benetton” and scatter his people of color about randomly like Amazon’s Rings of Power or Wheel of Time, but somehow he doesn’t seem like the type. Hence, Scheria as Wakanda.