‘Every ‘The Odyssey’ Actor Also Appearing In ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
Christopher Nolan does not often share his casting choices with other franchises, yet this summer two of the biggest movies in theaters happen to be pulling from the same talent pool. “The Odyssey” features a who’s who of Hollywood actors, with an A-list cast including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, and several of those names are turning up again just weeks later in a very different kind of blockbuster.
That overlap becomes especially obvious once ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ hits screens, since the Marvel sequel borrows a handful of faces straight out of Nolan’s ancient Greek epic. Fans have already started connecting the dots online, joking that the Trojan War crew somehow wandered into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here is a look at the actors doing double duty in both films this season.
Tom Holland
Holland plays Telemachus, the son of Matt Damon’s Odysseus, in ‘The Odyssey’, and he returns as Peter Parker in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, marking his fourth solo outing as the character and tying a record for the most Spider-Man films by one actor. The upcoming Brand New Day is Holland’s fourth solo outing in the MCU, tying the record held by Chris Hemsworth. Speaking about Nolan’s script, Holland told Agence France-Presse that Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic is the best script he has ever read, a comment he made through an interview cited by Variety.
Zendaya
Zendaya trades her grounded MJ persona for something far grander in ‘The Odyssey’, where she plays Athena, the goddess of wisdom who guides Odysseus throughout his journey home. Zendaya said in an interview with the Associated Press that her husband Tom Holland was the one who delivered the news of her casting, telling her to read the script again while picturing the goddess. She then reprises her role as MJ alongside Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, giving her one of the more eclectic double feature summers of any actor working right now.
Jon Bernthal
Bernthal plays Menelaus, the king of Sparta and husband of Helen of Troy, in ‘The Odyssey’, a role that finds him mentoring Holland’s Telemachus through flashbacks of the Trojan War. Bernthal also discussed returning to his role as The Punisher in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ during an appearance on TODAY, calling the character one he cares deeply about. Reflecting on working with Nolan, Bernthal explained in an interview cited by SlashFilm that there is real comfort in working with someone who feels like they were put on this earth to do exactly what they are doing.
The shared cast list is a reminder of just how tightly interconnected the modern blockbuster world has become, with major stars bouncing between prestige epics and franchise tentpoles within the same calendar year. It also underscores how small the upper tier of working Hollywood actors really is, since three of Nolan’s Bronze Age warriors are now swinging through New York City in spandex. With both films landing in theaters so close together, the crossover has become one of the more fun subplots of the summer movie season.
Which of these three do you think had the bigger tonal whiplash going from ancient Sparta to modern day Queens?
