{"id":414240,"date":"2026-05-06T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/414240\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:20:11","slug":"the-odyssey-trailer-sparks-complaints-over-jarring-accents-and-modern-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/414240\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey trailer sparks complaints over \u2018jarring\u2019 accents and modern phrases"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Universal Pictures\u2019 new trailer for The Odyssey<\/a> is facing a barrage of criticism over the actors\u2019 out-of-place accents and modern dialogue.<\/p>\n

Directed by Christopher Nolan<\/a>, the forthcoming epic is an adaptation of Homer\u2019s epic poem<\/a>, starring Matt Damon as the Greek hero Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope and Tom Holland as their son Telemachus. It also features Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and Charlize Theron.<\/p>\n

In the latest teaser<\/a> released Tuesday, Odysseus begs Calypso (Theron) to help him return home to his family after the 10-year Trojan War. While he\u2019s been away fighting for his people, Penelope has attracted a band of suitors vying for her hand in marriage, including Antinous (Pattinson). <\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to choose me,\u201d Antinous says, to which Penelope responds: \u201cIthica\u2019s King is coming back.\u201d Antinous disagrees: \u201cNo, he\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

A following scene shows Antinous confronting Telemachus. \u201cYou\u2019re pining for a daddy you didn\u2019t even know,\u201d he growls, \u201clike some sniveling bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Pattinson plays Antinous, Penelope’s lead suitor, in ‘The Odyssey’ (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

Several fans have taken issue with the actors\u2019 American accents and the use of the term \u201cdaddy\u201d \u2014 elements they say feel ill-suited to the ancient Greek setting of The Odyssey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American accents are incredibly jarring for a movie in this time period,\u201d one person wrote on Reddit, with a second arguing: \u201cThey should really all have British accents. Somehow that works better with history s***.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels wrong,\u201d a third said. <\/p>\n

One pointed to Pattinson\u2019s \u201cdaddy\u201d line, calling it \u201cso out of place in a sword & sandals movie with this much gravitas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgreed,\u201d a second commented. \u201cIt felt so out of place. Same with Matt Damon\u2019s \u2018Lets Go!\u2019 I\u2019m hoping the dialogue isn\u2019t too contemporary and pulls the viewer out of the period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another suggested that the modern dialogue \u201chas to be intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Damon leads Christopher Nolan’s new epic as Greek hero Odysseus (Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor something as big as The Odyssey<\/a>, you\u2019d think they\u2019d make the way the characters speak to each other sound less…modern?\u201d someone added. <\/p>\n

On X, others felt similarly. \u201cLiterally took me right out. Where\u2019s the accents\u2026.wheres the grammar of that time period!?\u201d one lamented, while a second questioned: \u201cDad …dad? …in that era…, I was expecting \u2014 \u2018My father is coming home.\u2019 Am I the only one who is a bit uncomfortable with this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan announced he was adapting The Odyssey in December 2024, months after winning his first Oscar for his Cillian Murphy-led historical drama Oppenheimer. <\/p>\n

During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,<\/a> the director revealed that he first encountered The Odyssey during a school play aged \u201cfour or five.\u201d Nolan acknowledged it\u2019s \u201ca story that we all kind of know a bit about,\u201d but assured fans his adaptation would allow them to \u201ccome to it really fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Odyssey is out in theaters July 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-414240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}