American entrepreneur Elon Musk has declared that his artificial intelligence (AI) company’s image generation and editing service, Grok Imagine, will create a historically accurate version of the Odyssey.
Musk stirred up controversy with a post on his X account, claiming that before year’s end, Grok Imagine will produce a feature film that faithfully adapts Homer’s original Odyssey.
In recent months, Musk has been vocal in his criticism of Christopher Nolan’s casting choices for the Odyssey adaptation. He’s particularly taken issue with the casting of Black actress Lupita Nyong’o in the dual roles of Helen and Clytemnestra, and transgender actor Elliot Page as Sinon, lending support to some of the critical voices surrounding these decisions.
Earlier, Musk endorsed a comment from an X user stating that Helen was traditionally depicted as fair-skinned, blonde, and so beautiful she was called the face that launched a thousand ships. Musk added that Christopher Nolan has lost authenticity with this casting.
When another user questioned why Nolan keeps changing white characters to actors of different races, Musk controversially suggested it was to win awards at ceremonies.
Despite the pre-release casting controversies, Odyssey is proving to be a box office hit globally. Following its premiere in the U.S. and U.K. on July 17, the film topped box office charts in 69 countries, raking in a global opening weekend of 264.06 million USD – a record-breaking debut for a Nolan-directed film.
In South Korea, Odyssey is slated for an August 5 release. It’s currently in a fierce advance ticket sales battle with Hope, which opened on July 15, and the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, set to release on July 29. As of 1:00 p.m. (Korean time)on Thursday, Odyssey had already secured 85,227 advance ticket sales, a number expected to climb following Spider-Man’s release.
While Hollywood has seen several projects marred by casting controversies fail at the box office – such as Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid with its Black lead, and Snow White featuring a Latina actress – Odyssey seems to be bucking this trend. The film appears to be successfully overcoming its controversies, leaving industry watchers eager to see how it performs in the coming weeks.