From Greek Islands To Iceland’s Underworld: Where Christopher Nolan Shot The Odyssey

It’s a beautiful sign that the Covid era is long over: Christopher Nolan’s landmark, blow-the-budget adaptation of The Odyssey lands in cinemas today, less than a year after filming wrapped. The star-studded take on Homer’s epic poem was captured across a 91-day period in 2025, from February to August, beginning on time and finishing nine days early.

But where did the ensemble find themselves? And did they trace Odysseus’ apocryphal footsteps? We’ve got the details below.

Matt Damon is Odysseus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

The Odyssey: All The Filming Locations

Production took place over a 91-day period from 25 February through to 5 August 2025, and six key countries feature: Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland and the US. That said, we won’t see any US landscapes in The Odyssey: sequences here took place in the Falls Lake water tank at the Universal lot, where the cast rowed, and sank, the Draken Harald Hårfagre, an authentic, working replica Norse longship painstakingly crafted using Viking shipbuilding techniques. (Don’t worry, nitpickers have already slated Nolan for his use of a Norse ship rather than a Greek one.)

Morocco, Greece and Italy, on the other hand, may well mirror the route Homer traced Odysseus through, the truth of which has been debated for about as long as the epic poem has been read (almost 3,000 years). Various locations, including Greece, Italy, Tunisia, the Maltese archipelago and the Iberian peninsula, have been proposed by academics and experts as the real settings of Odysseus’s travels. But, since the fantastical, 10-year voyage Odysseus endures is a work of fiction, there’s the ever-lingering possibility that the islands the Ithacan king visits were entirely made up by Homer anyway.

Director Christopher Nolan with Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC on set of his film THE ODYSSEY.

Regardless, we know the Greek archipelago is at the heart of The Odyssey and, fiction or no, Nolan leaned on the reality of a gruelling decade at sea to inform the production. As much as possible, the acclaimed director chose to work outdoors in the elements rather than in a studio. ‘By embracing the physicality of the real world in the filmmaking, you do inform the telling of the story in interesting ways,’ the director told Empire, ‘because you’re confronted on a daily basis by the world pushing back at you.’

For members of the ensemble – with everyone from Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway to Tom Holland and Zendaya on the call sheet – this made Odysseus’s fictional quest feel like a reality. Robert Pattinson, playing Antinous, has noted some days demanded ‘a 45-minute hike up a hill in sandals and full costume’. Rather than break his immersion, this demanding trek helped him enter Antinous’ headspace. ‘It does something to you,’ Pattinson noted. ‘You really feel like you are on a quest going somewhere and it’s a great equalizer. For every member of the crew, every member of the cast, you are experiencing the same thing. It’s a positive bonding experience.’

Tom Holland is Telemachus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Pattinson previously worked with Nolan on his mind-bending sci-fi thriller Tenet (2020), Nolan’s last feature before Oppenheimer (2023). Speaking on the director’s commitment to verisimilitude, Pattinson said: ‘He’s just not wired like other people; I think his polarity is the wrong way around. I mean, he does seem to choose the hardest possible way to make movies every single time. How do you go from, “I’m going to do a practical nuclear bomb” to “I want to do everything possible to make a literal whirlpool in the Mediterranean Sea”. It’s so insane.’

The result was something incredibly immersive for the ensemble involved. As Holland recently told GQ: ‘I remember walking down this beach for half an hour, and I’m just seeing Greek soldier, Greek soldier, Greek boat, Greek soldier, the Trojan wars, Greek boat, Greek soldier for…. I don’t know if I’m exaggerating, but it felt like miles. And I’m saying to the PA: “Where is the crew? I haven’t seen any evidence of a film set. This is more reminiscent of a reenactment than it is a film set”.’

Jimmy Gonzales is Cepheus, Matt Damon is Odysseus and Himesh Patel is Eurylochus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Greece

One location Odysseus visited is Greece. After all, this is where his home Ithaca is – the land he longed for throughout the 10-year Trojan War and spent another decade seeking to return to. It makes perfect sense then that the Peloponnese became the primary location. According to the Hellenic Film Commission, Voidokilia Beach, Almyrolaka Beach, Methoni Castle, Acrocorinth and Nestor’s Cave served as production locations.

Nestor’s Cave is a particularly fitting spot. Hidden 12 kilometers north of Pylos, as mythology would have it, this is where King Nestor and his father Neleus stabled their cattle. From one myth to another: in The Odyssey, this is where Odysseus encounters Cyclops Polyphemus.

Morocco

While Morocco isn’t thought to have been referred to in Homer’s original text, the nation’s undulating terracotta-hued sand dunes and mud brick buildings offer an authentically ancient atmosphere fitting for The Odyssey. Marrakech, Tahanaoute, El Haouz, Essaouira and Ouarzazate served as production locations, and it is thought the UNESCO-listed ksar Aït Benhaddou stands in for Troy.

Robert Pattinson is Antinous in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Sicily

While mainland Italy is slightly too pristine for the ancient setting of The Odyssey, there’s a different reality down in Sicily. This dramatic volcanic isle, criss-crossed throughout its long history by travellers and settlers, held particular significance. In the eighth century BCE, Sicily became a centre of Magna Graecia. Around the same time Homer’s epics were taking shape, the first Greek settlers were arriving and founding eastern colonies in Sicily, like Naxos in 734 BCE and Syracuse in 733 BCE. As such, the Odyssey’s mythical land of Thrinacia is believed to represent Sicily.

In spring 2025, Nolan and his crew landed on Sicily’s shores. Fitting the text’s obsession with small isles scattered across the Mediterranean, most of the Sicilian sequences took place on smaller constituent islands, including Lipari, Vulcano, Basiluzzo and Favignana. The latter is home to Castello di Santa Caterina, which represents Odysseus’ palace in Ithaca. And this is where Pattinson and the crew had to trek uphill for 45 minutes, navigating a zig-zagging path cut into the hillside. Equipment, however, was deposited by helicopter.

It was demanding, but far from the only challenging location the ensemble faced. As Damon recently told GQ: ‘Every single location on this movie would’ve been the hardest location on any other movie I’ve ever done. And they just went back-to-back.’

Matt Damon is Odysseus in THE ODYSSEY, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Iceland

While Odysseus never leaves the Mediterranean in The Odyssey, in book 11 of the epic poem, he does venture into the Underworld. This is where Iceland comes in: a suitably strange, mystical land for Odysseus to meet with the blind Theban prophet Tiresias (and encounter lots of other deceased comrades from the Trojan War). It has been reported that Nolan selected the black sands and caves of Hjörleifshöfði mountain to capture the bleak depths of the Underworld, along with the Snæfellsnes peninsula, the river Markarfljót and the harbour of Landeyjahöfn.

Scotland

Another cooler location was Scotland’s Moray Firth Coast, a 500-mile inlet along its northern reaches. Maritime sequences were captured here, with additional locations including Findlater Castle and Culbin Forest, all contributing to the mythical world Odysseus traverses. Beady-eyed reporters also spotted a full-scale, wooden Viking ship docked at Inverness during production.

The Odyssey lands in UK and US cinemas on Friday 17 July 2026.