From the team that brought you “Why is Snow White Latina?,” “Why are there Black people in ‘The Rings of Power?,’” and “Star Wars has gone woke,” comes the latest online onslaught against an anticipated Hollywood project that committed the unfathomable sin of having a diverse cast.
In recent days, Twitter trolls have formed a phalanx and pointed their sarissas squarely at “The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s $250 million adaptation of Homer’s epic scheduled to hit cinemas July 17. They have not actually seen the film yet, mind you, but have nevertheless managed to work themselves into a lather over a pair of castings (though Page’s character isn’t even confirmed yet): Elliot Page as Achilles’ Ghost and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.
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Forget that Achilles and Helen of Troy are both fictional characters navigating a mythological fable replete with a giant Cyclops, six-headed Scylla, and assorted other gods and monsters, or that these are just two actors in a giant cast that includes mostly white folks. In Homer’s telling, these two characters were white and with golden hair, so according to these apparent literary purists, they must be so in each and every adaptation. Why can’t Nolan’s film be more like “Troy,” Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 big-screen version of “The Iliad,” with its blindingly blond Achilles (played by Brad Pitt) and its Aryan Helen of Troy (Diane Kruger), they argue:
(That the latter tweet comes courtesy of the actor Kevin Sorbo, who played Hercules in the comically inconsistent with Greek mythology — and astoundingly bad — television series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” is *chef’s kiss*.)
These culture warriors have been led to battle by their own personal Agamemnon, Elon Musk, who’s never found a transgender person that hasn’t driven him mad (even his own daughter).
Musk, who owns Twitter, reportedly manipulates its algorithm to drive eyeballs to his account, frequently signal-boosts white grievance campaigns attacking diversity, and, according to a Guardiananalysis, “made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January,” has posted dozens of times in recent days attacking “The Odyssey” over its inclusion of Page and Nyong’o, while extolling “Troy.”
He has agreed with right-wing troll Matt Walsh’s argument that those on the left would be driven to “murderous violence” if Sydney Sweeney was cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa,” laughed at an AI-generated photo of Elliot Page (in Greek warrior garb) struggling to open a pickle jar, and accused Nolan of dancing on Homer’s grave:
We do know that Musk is a fan of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey,” having professed this numerous times on his platform, including the following reply to venture capitalist (and Trump advisor) Marc Andreessen in 2024, after Andreessen tweeted about how there were “so much alpha in books from 1870 to 1930, its unreal”:
For anyone who’s a fan of “The Iliad,” as Musk has purported to be, it’s almost impossible to like “Troy,” which bastardizes Homer’s tale beyond belief. It casts Menelaus (played by Brendan Gleeson) as one of the villains of its story; has Hector (Eric Bana) kill Menelaus to save Paris (Orlando Bloom), completely negating Menelaus’s appearance in “The Odyssey”; makes Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund) Achilles’ cousin, instead of his companion (and, according to Aeschylus, lover); allows Hector’s wife, Andromache (Saffron Burrows), and son, Astyanax, to escape Troy through a tunnel system, whereas subsequent Greek texts depict her as being captured and her son hurled from the walls of Troy by Achilles’ son; makes the Trojan War seem like it took a matter of weeks, instead of a decade; completely excises the Greek gods; and, most infuriatingly, has Briseis (Rose Byrne) kill Agamemnon, thus erasing one of the great Greek tragedies, Aeschylus’s “The Oresteia”:
It’s worth stressing, too, that both Helen of Troy and Achilles are relative afterthoughts in “The Odyssey.” The former pops up briefly in Book 4 as the Queen of Sparta and wife to Menelaus, recognizing Telemachus as Odysseus’s son, while the latter is encountered in passing by Odysseus in Book 11 as a spirit in the Underworld.
Now to the Oscar rules.
Musk and his acolytes have repeatedly accused Nolan of opting for a diverse cast in “The Odyssey” to meet Academy-mandated quotas for Oscar consideration — or, as Musk so succinctly tweeted, “He wants the awards.”
-Standard A: On-Screen Representation, Themes and Narratives
At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.
At least 30% of all actors in secondary and more minor roles are from at least two underrepresented groups.
The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group.
-Standard B: Creative Leadership and Project Team
At least two of the following creative leadership positions and department heads — Casting Director, Cinematographer, Composer, Costume Designer, Director, Editor, Hairstylist, Makeup Artist, Producer, Production Designer, Set Decorator, Sound, VFX Supervisor, Writer — are from an underrepresented group.
At least six other crew/team and technical positions (excluding Production Assistants) are from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. These positions include but are not limited to First AD, Gaffer, Script Supervisor, etc.
At least 30% of the film’s crew is from an underrepresented group.
-Standard C: Industry Access and Opportunities
The film’s distribution or financing company has paid apprenticeships or internships that are from underrepresented groups.
The film’s production, distribution and/or financing company offers training and/or work opportunities for below-the-line skill development to people from underrepresented groups.
-Standard D: Audience Development
The studio and/or film company has multiple in-house senior executives from a underrepresented groups (must include individuals from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups) on their marketing, publicity, and/or distribution teams.
The “underrepresented groups” in question include:
Women
Racial or ethnic group
LGBTQ+
People with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing
Again, two of these standards need to be satisfied for Oscar eligibility. So, you can still have an all-white cast and win Oscars if you satisfy other standards. And for an example of this, Musk and Co. can look no further than Nolan’s previous film, “Oppenheimer,” which had an all-white cast and took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Nolan. The film satisfied Standard B by having women as its costume designer, production designer, editor, and head of makeup; satisfied Standard C due to Universal Studios’ in-house apprenticeship programs; and satisfied Standard D because Universal has a woman as its chairman (Donna Langley), a woman as its president of international distribution (Veronika Kwan Vandenberg), and a Black person as its president of domestic marketing (Dwight Caines), along with other women on its leadership team.
As you can plainly see, the arguments levied by Musk and his fellow trolls do not hold water — or, as another bard once wrote, they are nothing more than “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
They're making this because Detective K from Blade Runner 2049 was too popular as an incel/chud-coded meme for almost a decade now, its similar to raping Joker in Joker 2 to shit on people who liked the first one for the "wrong" reasons.
From the team that brought you “Why is Snow White Latina?,” “Why are there Black people in ‘The Rings of Power?,’” and “Star Wars has gone woke,” comes the latest online onslaught against an anticipated Hollywood project that committed the unfathomable sin of having a diverse cast.
And what else did Zegler's Snow White, Amazon's Rings of Power and Disney Star Wars have in common. Could it be that they all took long established beloved works that also happened to be commercial juggernauts and crashed and burned following the subversive destructive insertion of the same bigoted ideology that 'tards such as this gaslighting soy laden article writer love to promote (at the expense of others).
Coincidence - we're well past the point where we have more than sufficient data to say nope.
I'm at the point with this where I no longer care whether or not this is turns out to be a good film. I just want it to fail, the harder the better, so I can point and laugh as our "betters" increasingly desperately and angrily insist that no; it was really successful taking half of what it should have done at the box office chud.
People praising Oppenheimer here are retards as it was balant propaganda to anyone that knows anything about the era. It is far easier to spot in Odyssey as the lie is of far greater magnitude yet it does have the same direction
It’s like that King of the Hill episode where they’re making a play about the Alamo and the director is taking a shitload of creative liberties with it just because “You can’t prove this didn’t happen.”
This movie will either be stillborn or be mercifully aborted.
People praising Oppenheimer here are retards as it was balant propaganda to anyone that knows anything about the era. It is far easier to spot in Odyssey as the lie is of far greater magnitude yet it does have the same direction
It's obvious they're targeting the next generation of normies, releasing this to correspond with Emily Wilson's translation. So when you pick up a new version of the book, there's also the updated movie version, making her translation feel all pervasive as opposed to the "backwards" previous ones. Nolan is just a shill who gets paid big bucks to work on this.
Forget that Achilles and Helen of Troy are both fictional characters navigating a mythological fable replete with a giant Cyclops, six-headed Scylla, and assorted other gods and monsters, or that these are just two actors in a giant cast that includes mostly white folks.
God I am so fucking sick of this excuse. "Um wow so you can accept a cyclops in a film but you can't accept a black Helen? Wow, racist much, chuds?"
Fuck off. Helen of Troy is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. This woman is not it. Also, if she's the only black person in a cast of white people, it kind of makes no sense then that all these white guys would launch a thousand ships for her face when she looks very different from the rest of them and, most importantly, she's not pretty. Someone posted black Helen from Xena: Warrior Princess and that actually worked. She fit with the setting and she was beautiful.
My only optimism is that Helen is supposed to stand out from everyone else, so what's the best way to make her stand out? By making her super black. But then I don't know why they're having her play Clytemnestra too. There are plenty of other black women they could get for their DEI quotas.
God I am so fucking sick of this excuse. "Um wow so you can accept a cyclops in a film but you can't accept a black Helen? Wow, racist much, chuds?"
Fuck off. Helen of Troy is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. This woman is not it. Also, if she's the only black person in a cast of white people, it kind of makes no sense then that all these white guys would launch a thousand ships for her face when she looks very different from the rest of them and, most importantly, she's not pretty. Someone posted black Helen from Xena: Warrior Princess and that actually worked. She fit with the setting and she was beautiful.
My only optimism is that Helen is supposed to stand out from everyone else, so what's the best way to make her stand out? By making her super black. But then I don't know why they're having her play Clytemnestra too. There are plenty of other black women they could get for their DEI quotas.
If your story is set in ancient mythical Greece, we accept that in ancient mythical Greece, there were cyclops.
When the story was written, Homer may have never even seen a black person, and even if he did, he probably would have seen her as an oddity and not raised her up to be the most beautiful woman in all the land.
What I fucking hate is the idea that you can bend the rules so much, it makes the framework of the story meaningless. Why not have airplanes? Why not have Odysseus be gay? Add samurai? Combat style is Systema? Zulu invasion? Everyone's hopped up on cocaine? I mean, you can believe in a cyclops, why not add whatever the hell else tickles your fancy?
It’s like that King of the Hill episode where they’re making a play about the Alamo and the director is taking a shitload of creative liberties with it just because “You can’t prove this didn’t happen.”
This movie will either be stillborn or be mercifully aborted.
I’m not sure about that. Christopher Nolan is one of the biggest and most respected directors in Hollywood, so I’m betting this’ll get all the good press and is bound for some Oscar nominations.
Nolan is a big deal, and things like The Dark Knight Trilogy and Barbenheimer prove it.
This whole ordeal feels like Nolan had some owed debt (not money but compliance), after a streak of sucess and this is how he is supposed to pay to remain in the good graces of his Hollywood overlords.
Half the things he is saying like the woman he hired as Helen being "too pretty" sounds like cope. I doubt even he belives half the things he is saying. It's more like everyone has to do the DEI sacraments and kneel to the woke overlords above.
It's all because the Academy decided they would not nominate movies that did not include a black or brown character no matter how inaccurate and nonsensical it would be.
Thank you for informing me!
x 9 
