In the middle of debating Heathcliff’s race/ethnicity in Wuthering Heights, we’re now being faced with another race-in-casting debate, this time for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Keep in mind, while Nolan has confirmed which actors were cast as certain characters, we still don’t know who half of these actors are playing. What we know for sure: Matt Damon is Odysseus, Anne Hathaway is Penelope, Zendaya is Athena, Charlize Theron is apparently Circe, and on and on.

We also know that Lupita Nyong’o is in there somewhere. I thought Lupita was probably playing one of the goddesses, because… look at her. She would be convincing as a goddess. But there’s a rumor going around that Lupita was cast as Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, the face that launched a thousand ships and triggered the Trojan War (when Paris stole Helen from her husband King Menelaus). The Greek myth is that Helen was the daughter of Zeus – Zeus came down and turned into a swan so he could impregnate Leda, and Helen was born from a swan egg. Greek myths are a trip. Well, as you would imagine, noted Greek mythology scholar and race investigator Elon Musk started a major discourse about this alleged casting.

Elon Musk took to X on Sunday to claim two-time Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan “has lost his integrity” while debating Lupita Nyong’o’s speculated role in “The Odyssey,” Helen of Troy.

On Sunday morning, one X user claimed that if Nyong’o plays Helen of Troy, it is “an insult” to the Greek poet Homer, who wrote “The Odyssey” around 700 BCE, because he originally described the fictonal character as “fair skinned, blonde, and ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ because she was so beautiful that men started a war over her.” Musk later commented on the post, “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.”

Variety reported a Nyong’o and Nolan team-up back in November 2024, but it wasn’t until the following December that the project was revealed to be “The Odyssey.” Nyong’o’s role in the film has yet to be confirmed. Other cast members include Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie and Elliot Page.

[From Variety]

Joyce Carol Oates clocked Elon so hard when she talked about his joylessness and his lack of appreciation for art, beauty and nature. She called him uneducated and uncultured. She saw into his soul and she was unimpressed. That’s what this reminded me of – announcing that Nolan has “lost his integrity” because of a RUMOR that Lupita *might* have been cast as Helen of Troy. Musk and his cuck fanboys haven’t actually studied Greek myth nor are they scholars of Homeric tradition. Nor are they educated on the vast racial realities and racial politics in antiquity. They’re just mad that a Black woman might have been cast as a fictional character described as the most beautiful woman in the world.

Anyway… I actually don’t even believe that Lupita was cast as Helen, but if she was, then I actually think it’s an amazing casting choice from Nolan. That’s sort of the reason why I don’t believe Lupita is Helen – that kind of casting choice from Nolan would be deeply out of character for him. But I could totally see him casting Lupita as a goddess.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Backgrid.