Watch: an archaeologist’s guide to Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’

When the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey dropped in early 2026, it immediately sparked debate about accuracy, myth and why this ancient story keeps returning to us — each time slightly changed as it passes through the prism of a new storyteller. In this video, the latest in our Academic Review series, archaeologist and UC Berkeley Professor Kim Shelton walks viewers through Nolan’s trailer, relaying both archaeological insight and commentary on the epic’s long history.

As a professor in the Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies and director of the Archaeological Research Facility, Shelton specializes in Bronze Age Greece, or 1600-1100 BCE — the time period The Odyssey is set in. She also leads numerous digs as director of Berkeley’s Nemea Center in Greece. Her expertise allows her to approach the trailer not as a checklist of right or wrong but as a conversation between myth, history and cinema.

Beyond questions of accuracy, her commentary focuses on the human story and archetypes that make The Odyssey so enduring. Shelton emphasizes that the film is not simply an adventure tale but a psychological journey for Odysseus. “What’s more important is his own personal journey,” she explains. “He has been a warrior by strength and by wit for 10 years, and he needs to actually change back into the human being he was.”

The many threads of this epic tale are being explored this spring by more than 1,500 UC Berkeley alumni who are participating in a book club hosted by the Division of Arts & Humanities. Participants are meeting virtually and on demand biweekly to read The Odyssey with Berkeley’s foremost faculty experts, Shelton being one of them. 

Students at Berkeley also have opportunities to study mythology, ancient history and archaeology in the classroom and in the field, including participation in excavations at the Nemea Center’s summer field schools in Greece.

Nolan’s work is already familiar to the campus. In 2023, Oppenheimer brought the director’s attention — and cameras — to Berkeley, highlighting the university’s central role in the design and creation of the atomic bomb, one of the most consequential scientific stories of the 20th century. 

For Shelton, the surge in interest in the film proves the enduring nature of our connection with the ancient world. “There’s really nothing like uncovering something and holding in your hand an object that someone dropped 3,000 years ago,” Shelton says. “It’s a human connection.”