Robert Pattinson’s Villain In ‘The Odyssey’ Has Him Taunting Tom Holland in the Most Unhinged Way Possible
Christopher Nolan has built a reputation for assembling casts that go far beyond the expected, and his upcoming adaptation of Homer’s ancient epic is no exception. ‘The Odyssey’ features a sprawling ensemble including Matt Damon as the wandering king Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as the long-suffering Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. It is, by any measure, one of the most ambitious casts assembled for a single film in recent memory, and the chemistry between its stars is already generating plenty of pre-release buzz.
At the center of the intrigue back in Ithaca is Robert Pattinson, reuniting with Nolan for the second time following ‘Tenet’, and this time stepping fully into the role of the villain. He plays Antinous, an antagonistic figure who, believing Odysseus is gone for good, begins scheming to take his place and vying for the attention of Penelope. It is the kind of role that requires equal parts menace and theatricality, and by all accounts Pattinson has leaned into it wholeheartedly.
Standing directly in Antinous’s path is Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus’s son and the prince of Ithaca. In an exclusive interview with Empire Magazine, Pattinson described Antinous as simply the worst stepfather you could possibly imagine. The quote that has since sent fans spiraling, however, is the one he deployed while taunting Holland on set, channeling his character’s obsessive desire to dominate the young prince. “This was just a fun part to play,” Pattinson told Empire. “I just want to be your daddy. That’s all I want!”
The dynamic between the two actors has a history that makes the on-screen antagonism feel all the more natural. ‘The Odyssey’ marks their third film together, following ‘The Lost City of Z’ and ‘The Devil All the Time’, and Pattinson himself acknowledged that working opposite Holland again made the dynamic easier to inhabit. Whenever the two have appeared together on screen, Pattinson has consistently found himself in the position of threatening or menacing Holland’s character. “I always end up doing these slithery things with Tom and I don’t know why,” Pattinson told Empire.
Holland, for his part, spoke warmly about the reunion, saying that having a familiar face on set gave him a real sense of comfort within the intense environment of a Nolan production. The pairing has an easy, almost comedic shorthand that seems to translate directly into the charged tension their characters share on screen, which is exactly the kind of dynamic that makes ensemble epics like this one crackle with life.
‘The Odyssey’ arrives in cinemas on July 17, with its enormous cast also including Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, and Jovan Adepo. Empire’s full feature on the film, including on-set visits and interviews with Damon, Hathaway, Holland, Pattinson, and Nolan himself, lands in the August 2026 issue, available from July 2. Between Pattinson’s scene-stealing charisma and Holland’s grounded emotional core, the suitor conflict looks set to be one of the most compelling threads in the entire film, and whether the “worst stepfather you could possibly have” becomes a fan-favorite villain is a question only a cinema seat can answer.
