Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey doesn’t open until July 17. Elon Musk has already found two reasons to go after it.
On Tuesday, Time published a profile of Nolan confirming that Lupita Nyong’o will play dual roles — both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra. One actress, two sisters, opposite fates: one remembered for her beauty, one for her vengeance. Within hours, Musk was back on X.
He amplified a post from conservative commentator Matt Walsh claiming no one really believes Nyong’o is “the most beautiful woman in the world” and accusing Nolan of cowardice for casting a Black actress as Helen. Musk replied, “True.” He also agreed with another post claiming Nolan cast Nyong’o to satisfy Academy diversity standards for Best Picture eligibility, a post that ended by calling Nolan a coward. Musk later wrote that Nolan made the casting decision because “he wants the awards.” In February, when the role was still only rumored, Musk posted that Nolan had “lost his integrity.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2026
That was the first attack.
The Second Target Was Elliot Page
Elliot Page is also in The Odyssey. His role hasn’t been officially confirmed, but rumors have linked him to Achilles. Musk didn’t wait for confirmation. He called the idea “one of the dumbest and twisted things” he had ever heard, then reacted to posts mocking Page’s rumored casting, including AI-generated images built around Page struggling with a pickle jar. He reposted transphobic content about Page to 240 million followers on the platform he owns.
Page came out as a transgender man in December 2020. Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, came out as a transgender woman that same year and legally changed her name in 2022. In her court petition, she wrote that she did not “wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” She took her mother’s surname instead.
She has not changed her position. Musk has not publicly reconciled with her. There has been no indication that either of those things is about to change.
For the Record
Musk did not personally write that Nyong’o is not beautiful. Walsh wrote that. Musk amplified it, agreed with it, echoed a second post tying the casting to Oscar diversity rules, and added that Nolan was chasing awards. That gap between what Musk personally typed and what he chose to broadcast to a quarter of a billion people is important.
Walsh’s post didn’t engage with Nyong’o’s performance — the film isn’t out yet. It didn’t engage with the script — nobody outside the production has seen it. It was a statement about a specific woman’s appearance, sent across a platform Musk controls to an audience larger than most countries.
Nyong’o is a two-time Oscar winner who has appeared on international magazine covers and is widely considered one of the most compelling screen presences working today. Walsh’s claim that “not one person on the planet” sees her as beautiful is not film criticism. It is culture-war content wearing a bronze helmet.
Nyong’o has not responded. Nolan has not responded.
The Role Was Bigger Than a Checklist
Helen and Clytemnestra are not supporting roles. Helen is the woman whose abduction sets the Trojan War in motion — the most famous conflict in Western literature. Clytemnestra is her sister, who murders her husband Agamemnon on his return from Troy and is later killed by her own son. They are two of the most dramatically loaded women in classical mythology, and their stories pull in opposite directions.
Casting one actress in both roles is a choice that can mean many things — duality, sisterhood, beauty and consequence occupying the same body across the same war. Audiences will decide whether it lands. What it clearly is not is simply a checklist.
The issue is not whether audiences are allowed to debate classical casting. They are. Musk may dislike the decision. Fine. But pretending there is no artistic logic to it is lazy. Nolan has spent his career making studio films feel unusually personal — shooting on actual film, refusing streaming deals, building real practical effects for sequences other directors would hand to computers. The director Musk says “lost his integrity” just made a three-hour historical drama that grossed nearly a billion dollars and won seven Oscars. Whether that record constitutes integrity is ultimately a judgment call. It is, at minimum, a record worth noting.
The Platform and the Pattern
Musk owns X. This week he used it to amplify attacks on a Black actress’s appearance and to mock a trans actor’s casting — both in the same unreleased film, both to the same massive audience, both from the most-followed account on a platform he personally controls.
His trans daughter changed her name specifically to put distance between them.
The Odyssey opens July 17. The rest of the confirmed cast includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal and Travis Scott.
Musk has not yet commented on the casting of the Cyclops.