Megyn Kelly on The Odyssey film: “Who decided it would be a good idea to make a movie out of the book no one wanted to read and no one enjoyed in high school?”
Kelly: Helen of Troy is the “most beautiful woman in the world and described as extremely white in the book” and she's “going to be played by a Black woman, by Lupita Nyong'o”
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Megyn Kelly on The Odyssey film: “Who decided it would be a good idea to make a movie out of the book no one wanted to read and no one enjoyed in high school?”
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From the May 21, 2026, edition of SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Show
MEGYN KELLY (HOST): Hollywood remains woke as ever. Unfortunately, just when you think, like, they've learned their lesson, they prove that you are wrong. And I think you guys have talked about this on your show, but The Odyssey.
Now first of all, who decided it would be a good idea to make a movie out of the book no one wanted to read and no one enjoyed in high school, right? Like, The Odyssey was like the -- it's like a door stopper book that you were like, when will it end? Good gracious, it went on forever. It was so boring, that's what I remember about The Odyssey. Like, who's like Homer, that's a good idea? Anyway, they're doing it.
And they're — hold on a second. I'm trying to find my packet on this. Standby. The guy who produced Oppenheimer is putting this together, Christopher Nolan. And instead of, for example, having a white woman play Helen of Troy said to, you know, mythologically be the most beautiful woman in the world and described as extremely white in the book — it mentions that she's white-armed and or pale-armed, and there are other references — it's played by -- it's going to be played by a Black woman, by Lupita Nyong'o.
So as Matt Walsh, you know, he kind of put it better than I could, but he writes, "Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong'o is the most beautiful woman in the world. But Christopher Nolan -- he knows that he would be called racist if he gave the most beautiful woman role to a white woman. Nolan is technically talented," he says, "but a coward, too afraid to do anything other -- anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age. We're told we should not object to Helen of Troy being portrayed by by a Black woman, and yet if a major Hollywood studio made a film set in Africa and cast a white woman as the most beautiful woman in Africa, those same people would literally riot in the streets."
He's 100% right. And it's not just the role of Helen of Troy. Nyong'o also plays Helen of Troy's sister, from the novel. And in addition to that, you've got Elliot Page. Hello, Ellen Page, who's masquerading very badly, by the way, as a male these days, who's going to be cast in it reportedly as Achilles, who's male. Again, the the character is male, and they've chosen a fake male who's not in any way heroic. And Achilles is a tragic Greek hero who Odysseus meets in the underworld. Odysseus is played by Matt Damon. So you've got Elliot Page in there, and then you've got Travis Scott, who I think is the father of one of the Kardashian babies and a singer, is going to be in the movie as well as a professional poet, singer, and storyteller.
I don't know why, but we both know that Hollywood has these diversity roles now that lead to all sorts of weird and inappropriate casting decisions. And Christopher Nolan is hashtag part of the problem still.