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.
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.
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- Christopher Nolan poses backstage with the Oscar® for Directing and Best Picture during the live ABC telecast of the 96th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855771625, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Lupita Nyong’o at the BAFTA: British Academy Film Awards 2025 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom,Image: 964959740, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- Lupita Nyong’o arrives on the red carpet of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.,Image: 971227798, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** EDITORIAL USE ONLY! * NB: Fees charged by Avalon are for Avalon’s services only, and do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright or License in the material. Avalon does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright or License in the attached material. By publishing this material you (the user) expressly agree to indemnify and to hold Avalon and its directors, shareholders and employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), or any causes of action or allegation against Avalon arising out of or connected in any way with publication of the material. * Handling Fee Only ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
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- Lupita Nyong’o arrives on the red carpet of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.,Image: 971231572, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** EDITORIAL USE ONLY! * NB: Fees charged by Avalon are for Avalon’s services only, and do not, nor are they intended to, convey to the user any ownership of Copyright or License in the material. Avalon does not claim any ownership including but not limited to Copyright or License in the attached material. By publishing this material you (the user) expressly agree to indemnify and to hold Avalon and its directors, shareholders and employees harmless from any loss, claims, damages, demands, expenses (including legal fees), or any causes of action or allegation against Avalon arising out of or connected in any way with publication of the material. * Handling Fee Only ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
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- Hollywood, CA – Celebrities hit the red carpet at the 94th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. Pictured: Lupita Nyong’o BACKGRID USA 27 MARCH 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: The Grosby Group / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Hollywood, CA – Celebrities attends the GO Campaign’s Annual Gala 2023 at Citizen News Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. Pictured: Lupita Nyong’o BACKGRID USA 21 OCTOBER 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC – Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer, Tesla, SpaceX, and X (previously known as Twitter) and Administrator, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) speaks during a press conference with United States President Donald J Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Pictured: Elon Musk BACKGRID USA 30 MAY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Paramount’s New York Premiere Of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Featuring: Lupita Nyong’o Where: New York, New York, United States When: 26 Jun 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit Gala 2025 in New York Featuring: Lupita Nyong’o Where: New York City, United States When: 05 May 2025 Credit: Matt Crossick/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Great choice for Helen if this is true!
Lupita would be an extremely convincing Helen because her beauty is unsurpassed. However, if Musk and the other incels are insisting on “historical accuracy,” all the female roles should be played by men in drag since women weren’t allowed on the stage in ancient Greece.
This is the first time I cared about this movie haha, definitely a good choice
It’s The Little Mermaid all over again. We can suspend belief that one eyed giants, cannibalistic giants who eat his whole crew, sirens, a witch that turns men into pigs, nymphs and immortal cows exist but never, ever believe a black woman can be the most beautiful woman in the world. Never mind that Helen’s father is supposedly the god of all gods.
Well if there is going to be discussion about staying true to the description of a character or historical figure eg very recent Wuthering Heights debate,then it can’t be one sided.
i mention this below, but to me the difference is that Helen’s skin color isn’t central to her story – her beauty is. If they changed the story and said “actually she wasn’t even that pretty, she was just really smart and funny” then I would roll my eyes. But they’re staying true to the part of her description that matters most.
Whitewashing heathcliff removes something that is central to the story.
In the case of Wuthering Heights, racism against Heathcliff is core theme in the novel.
As for ancient Greek texts, they are full of people of color. Greece was an empire and interacted with many different people. Helen’s skin color is not described so she is open to interpretation. Other characters, like Memnon, are specifically described as Black.
There is no description of Helen of Troy in the Iliad. Just that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. I think Lupita nails it.
Oh no, he might have cast the most beautiful woman in the world to play … *checks notes* … the most beautiful woman in the world.
Racists are evil and dumb.
Musk REALLY dislikes people of color, doesn’t he? What a piece of crap.
See the excellent Guardian article, “How the Roots of the ‘Paypal Mafia’ Extend to Apartheid South Africa”. Can I leave this link here?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
Agreed, Lupita is an inspired choice for Helen of Troy!
I hate this. 😕😕
A Black woman is subjected to taunts and insults from all quarters for an unconfirmed story.
If the movie comes out and underperforms, the Black woman is then blamed.
Talk about taking it from all sides.
I should not let these things bother me, but they do. It’s so fucking demoralizing.
One good thing. I’m doubtful this movie will underperform. Don’t quote me on that but his movies usually don’t? That said, yeah it sucks. There’s been a few people I’ve noticed that have been getting targeted recently and a lot of it has been about race. It’s hard to see. Love to Lupita. She’s insanely gorgeous and equally as talented.
Random note here: ancient Greeks saw color differences, but they didn’t valorize them. They thought black skin goes with warm climates. Herodotus traveled to Egypt and met people most likely from the Nilotic family, which he described as the tallest and most beautiful people.
What is most irritating is the widespread ignorance surrounding Greek mythology, the Homeric tradition, and the racial dynamics of Antiquity. It is essential to remember that the concept of race as we understand it today is a modern construct.
The same applies to those who claim that Black people did not exist at the time. They conveniently forget that our contemporary vision of Antiquity has been shaped by centuries of colonial and Eurocentric narratives, which often push Africa to the margins of History. Yet, upon closer examination, Africa was not merely present but central to the formation and worldview of the Greco-Roman world.
Herodotus, in his Histories, leaves little room for doubt: he credits the Egyptians with the invention of writing, mathematics, and medical principles, and acknowledges that the Greeks inherited a significant portion of this intellectual legacy from them. Moreover, references to a Black Egypt long predate the Macedonian conquests. This view was far from isolated. Numerous ancient authors—Strabo, Diodorus of Sicily, Plutarch—reiterate, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with puzzlement, that Greek civilization drew heavily from Egyptian sources.
From this perspective, Lupita may well be the only historically coherent casting choice in this adaptation.
By contrast, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Elliot Page are Anglo-Saxon actors, despite the fact that there were no historical exchanges between the Anglo-Saxons and the Greeks during that period.
Similarly, until the Middle Ages, it was extremely rare to encounter individuals with blond hair and blue eyes; the majority of European populations had brown eyes and black or brown hair.
Thank you for taking the time to write this Line. You are spot on!
Thank!
Why do you think Nolan casting Lupita as Helen would be out of character for him? Genuinely asking bc I don’t know much about Nolan except he makes big movies.
I know this will shock many of you, but I am not an expert on Homer or classical Greek mythology or history etc.
So first – does homer actually describe her as blonde hair and blue eyed, or is that some translation that imposed that beauty ideal on Helen centuries later?
Regardless – she was the face that launched a thousand ships, and Lupita has that kind of face. So that checks out.
I dont think Odysseus looked like Matt Damon so maybe we can all just go with it here.
But the difference to me between this and the Wuthering Heights casting is that Helen being white or Black (as we think of those terms today) does not change the plot. It’s not a central point in her story – the central point is her beauty. While the basic plot of WH doesn’t change if Heathcliff is white, a lot of the nuances and undercurrents do change. Here, we just need a face to launch a thousand ships.
Ancient Greeks did not have a word for “blue”. They only talked about “light colored” eyes. Their “blonde” was more red or light brown. What we tend to call blonde nowadays the ancient Greeks called the hair of old people. That’s how they described Scandinavians when they had contact with them.
Helen was not described as blonde , blue eyed, but as having white arms or fair face or rich hair.
Anyway, racists can lump it. Lupita is one of the most beautiful women in the world.
It always intrigued me that Helen and Clytemnestra were sisters, perhaps even twin sisters. What a pain being Helen. What a pain being her sister. Clytemnestra’s need for therapy was urgent. And Agamemnon had it coming.
I’d love it if she was cast as Helen of Troy.
Literally everything in what we’ve seen so far of this film is both historically and mythologically inaccurate while at the same time completely lacking in imagination and creativity (e.g. the costumes, the weapons, the settings – all basic bitch fantasy 101). This extends to the casting (Nolan’s tendency to recycle the same actors is something that really annoys me and affects my suspension of disbelief), with the exception of Zendaya as Athena and, if this is true, Lupita as Helen. Good for him in this one aspect.
There are Africans in the Iliad and Odyssey, or at least the cycle of myths surrounding them – King Memnon of Aethiopia and his troops. Some of the Homeric heroes are described in terms of hair colour (e.g. Achilles and Menelaus have fair/red hair as far as we can translate the ancient Greek colour terminology, but there are issues with these terms too – for example Homer famously calls the sea ‘wine-dark’, but what does that mean? Neither white nor red wine looks like the blue/grey colour of the sea that we’re familiar with today). But blonde, blue-eyed Helen is a modern construction, which looks nothing like the women depicted in ancient Minoan frescoes, and Bettany Hughes and Ruby Blondell have written books about it.
And isn’t Zendaya playing Athena? Or am I wrong? Did people freak out then?
The usual suspects aren’t happy with that either.
No one cast a black actress for the old Clash of the Titans film, even though Cassiopeia and Andromeda were Ethiopian.
You’d think people could deal with ‘a black swan event’ in the 21st century.
One of my daughters got super into the Percy Jackson books, and we’ve been watching the Disney series of it. We’re all enjoying it although my daughter hates the changes from the book 😂.
But something I’ve enjoyed about it is Zeus was portrayed by Lance Reddick, and the character that’s Athena’s daughter is a beautiful Black girl, and there’s a lot of diversity in the cast overall. I really appreciate that they didn’t default to an all white cast, or default to portraying divinity as white. It would be cool if adults got to see a similar cast and weren’t racist babies about it.
Also, since my daughter’s read the whole series, she now knows some really appalling mythology stories. Like a character that’s on screen for ten minutes, she says oh yeah that guy fed his baby to the gods. Darrrrk.
Just jumping in to say Lance Reddick left us way too soon.
Lupita is just one of the few women who are effortlessly beautiful, ethereal almost.
Ethereal is the word that always comes to mind when I see Lupita’s photos. She just seems to float above everyone else. She is stunning and would be a great choice to play Helen of Troy.
I might even go to see a Christopher Nolan film if this turns out to be true.
I love this! Lupita’s face is breathtaking, truly one that would launch a thousand ships! I’ll cross my fingers this is true, and I hope no one will waste a single second being pressed over the usual whiny, racist babies who throw tantrums over the casting of a mythological character in a make believe film.
The French police raided his offices this morning. I suspect he has bigger Epstein Fish to fry at this point.
Let’s cast a beautiful white woman as the leader of the Zimbabwe or Mali empire, let’s see how that goes.
Lupita is gorgeous. I’d buy her as Helen. Main criterion met. Even cursory knowledge of antiquity would confirm that importing Anglo-Saxon beauty standards to Ancient Greece is just silly.
It would be so fun! I don’t care what Homer described Helen, aren’t allowed to have some fun with this? Lupita is so pretty, let us have this.