The epic Christopher Nolan failed to make is now a #1 global streaming hit

The Odyssey fever is real — and global. While Christopher Nolan’s Greek epic shattered box office records for the director and became one of the biggest R-rated openings ever worldwide, its impact is stretching well beyond theaters, as another Trojan War movie is suddenly climbing streaming charts around the world.

According to FlixPatrol data, Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 epic Troy has become a major streaming hit across HBO Max and other non-U.S. streaming platforms in the wake of The Odyssey. Brad Pitt’s swords-and-sandals blockbuster has surged up European and Latin American charts in particular, where viewers seem eager for another trip to Ancient Greece while Nolan’s film continues its theatrical rollout. It’s the kind of trickle-down effect only a genuine cultural phenomenon can create.

But I can’t help but think: Before we got Petersen’s Troy, we almost got Christopher Nolan’s Troy. Warner Bros. Pictures ultimately removed the director from the project. That’s because, in 2004, Nolan wasn’t Nolan yet.

Why Christopher Nolan failed to make Troy

Fresh off Insomnia, Nolan had become one of Warner Bros.’ most promising young directors, and the studio hired him to helm its adaptation of Homer’s Iliad. Petersen, meanwhile, had stepped away from the project to pursue an ambitious Batman vs. Superman movie. But when that superhero crossover collapsed — yes, the one that got far enough along to be teased on a Times Square billboard in I Am Legend — Petersen wanted his Greek epic back. Warner Bros. obliged, handing Troy to the filmmaker while keeping Nolan in-house for what became a pretty decent consolation prize: Batman Begins.

“At the end of the day, it was a world that I was very interested to explore,” Nolan recently told Empire. “So it’s been at the back of my mind for a very long time. Certain images, particularly. How I wanted to handle the Trojan horse, things like that.”

It’s one of those irresistible Hollywood what-ifs. Nolan has also spoken elsewhere about imagining the Trojan Hhorse as a fallen monument, inspired by the haunting image of the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes. Even two decades later, that version of the story clearly never left his mind. But watching the Troy we got, you can’t help but wonder what Nolan would have done pre-Batman Begins.

Petersen’s Troy is… a strange movie. It’s long, stoic, hyper-saturated, and almost as fascinated by the sculptural perfection of Brad Pitt’s abs as François Duquesnoy was with Adonis. Petersen, who made everything from Das Boot to Air Force One to The NeverEnding Story, could have swung a lot of ways with the magic-tinged tale, but he delivers an old-school studio epic built around brutal masculinity and enormous battle sequences. Pitt and Eric Bana trade blows. Orlando Bloom once again solves problems with archery. The whole thing barrels toward spectacle with conviction, which makes it rewatchable at the very least. But there’s rarely much happening beneath the bronze armor.

Ironically, The Odyssey suggests Nolan ultimately benefited from waiting. Twenty years later, he’s a radically different filmmaker surrounded by collaborators who elevate every aspect of his vision. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema transforms ancient Greece into something simultaneously mythical and tactile, while Ludwig Göransson’s score gives psychological weight to the IMAX-sized images. I love Nolan’s Hans Zimmer era, but Göransson has unlocked the personal within the director’s baroque, large-scale style. Nolan almost feels like a choreographer working alongside Homer’s book and a composer’s music.

The wait for Nolan’s Trojan horse was clearly worth it, as the timing is paying off in spectacular fashion. The Odyssey sailed to a staggering $264.1 million worldwide in its opening weekend, the biggest global opening of Nolan’s career, with a record international debut across 73 markets. Even more remarkably, the film hasn’t yet opened in several of the world’s biggest territories, including South Korea, China, and Japan, suggesting its worldwide haul is only getting started.

The surge in Troy interest is easily explained: As audiences wait for Nolan’s epic to arrive on Blu-ray and streaming, Petersen’s take scratches the itch. Still, Nolan “failed” to make Troy — but what a humongous win for culture that he did.

The Odyssey is now in theaters. Troy is streaming for free with ads on YouTube.