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Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas: HERE.
Hollywood simply cannot help itself. For years, these privileged elites have spewed angry, hateful, profanity-riddled, self-righteous rants against President Trump and the MAGA movement, driving American audiences away from theaters into the arms of streaming alternatives like Angel Studios which don’t insult their values or sucker-punch them politically. Thanks to industry-enforced DEI requirements, blatantly woke casting has added another layer of offensiveness to viewers.
A disappointing but entirely predictable example of this is the revelation that filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Oppenheimer) reportedly has cast black actress Lupita Nyong’o as legendary Greek beauty Helen of Troy in his highly anticipated, $250 million IMAX adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, set to open July 17, 2026. Nyong’o is an Oscar-winning actress, some point out, so why is this a problem?
Her acting talent is not the issue. The problem is the painfully obvious DEI casting of a black woman as an iconic queen of ancient Greece.
Lupita Nyong’o was actually confirmed as a cast member a year ago, but it was uncertain whether she was playing King Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra, the goddess Athena, or some other character. Now it has been confirmed she will portray “the face that launched a thousand ships,” as Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe put it, and sparked the Trojan War. She is right for none of those roles, for the simple reason that the ancient Greeks were not black Africans; nor were their gods and goddesses.
The social media backlash to this news was swift and withering, but some of Nyong’o’s and Nolan’s defenders noted that she is an exceptional actress and beautiful, so the only reason to object to her casting must be racism. But the undeniable fact is that ancient sources such as Homer’s other classic, The Iliad, the Greek poet Sappho, and playwright Euripides describe Helen of Troy repeatedly as “white-armed,” “fair-haired” or “golden-haired” and “fair-faced,” referring to the classical female ideal of pale skin and blonde hair. In addition, Helen’s beauty is described as supernaturally devastating. She is not merely the most gorgeous woman in the world – as a daughter of Zeus, her radiance is literally semi-divine.
Another common defense of Nolan’s casting goes like this: Helen of Troy was a mythical figure, not a real person, so there is nothing historically inaccurate about depicting her however Nolan chooses.
But there is such a thing as respecting the integrity of the original story. Filmmakers working with an existing intellectual property, whether it is the James Bond franchise or Homer’s Odyssey, have a choice: they can commit either to the racist identity politics of DEI or to the creative integrity of the original story. Both James Bond and The Odyssey are fictional creations, but the race, sex, and sexual orientation of their principal characters cannot be altered without tearing asunder the fabric of the original artist’s creative tapestry.
Violating story integrity is also a guaranteed way to alienate the built-in audience which is the very reason Hollywood executives prefer adapting existing IPs rather than taking a chance on original material. Rumors that Nolan’s Odyssey would feature warriors in historically inaccurate armor were enough to send prospective fans into a tailspin; the casting of Nyong’o as Helen will only turn off even more potential viewers. This is not an instance in which controversy will be good for business.
Storytelling suffers when what poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called “the willing suspension of disbelief” is shattered by a jarring casting choice like an African Helen of Troy, and when characters are reduced to cardboard vehicles for the promotion of a political agenda. No one in the audience is well-served when filmmakers revise the past, even the mythical past, to spread the lies of today.
But the self-righteous virtue signalers in Hollywood can’t help themselves, as I wrote above. In recent years they have thumbed their collective nose like this at audiences numerous times. A black actress was cast as Henry VIII discard Anne Boleyn, who was undeniably white; but if you pointed out that casting a black actress would make the project distractingly contrary to historical fact, then you were smeared as upholding white supremacist culture.
A black actress was cast as the titular lead in an historical Netflix drama Queen Cleopatra. The scholarly consensus, however, is that the Queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC was of Macedonian descent, with the prominent aquiline nose common among the Romans and Greeks. No serious scholar argues that she was a sub-Saharan African.
I’m a big fan of black actor Idris Elba, but his casting as the Norse god Heimdall, guardian of Asgard, in the Marvel Thor franchise was simply laughable. The Norse gods were even less black than the Greek gods.
Bisexual black actress Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) was cast as Jesus in Hollywood Bowl performances of Jesus Christ Superstar. Does anyone think that was anything but intentional provocation of Christians? (Does anyone believe the producers would have cast her as the Muslim prophet in a production of Muhammad Superstar?)
And on and on. We all know what the Left’s reaction would be to the casting of white South African Charlize Theron in a biopic of Rosa Parks, or Aussie star Hugh Jackman as black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or inexplicable heartthrob Timothée Chalomet as Sammy Davis, Jr. There is no point in making this obvious counter-argument, because Leftists are impervious to accusations of hypocrisy; they simply don’t care. They would simply counter that early Hollywood spent decades “whitewashing” minorities by casting white actors to play, for example, Chinese detective Charlie Chan, so now social justice demands that we reverse-discriminate against whites.
(The Left is also impervious to complaints that discrimination against whites is still discrimination. They know that, and they are fine with it because the Left equates whiteness with evil.)
By casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, Nolan and Universal Studios are signaling that their political messaging and affirmative action preference takes priority over the original material and over the moviegoers themselves, who deserve a film that doesn’t insult their intelligence and shove wokeness in their collective face. As Elon Musk put it, “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.”
Chris Nolan has lost his integrity
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2026
Let Christopher Nolan and Universal take note: Algemeiner correspondent Corey Walker tweeted a message that surely speaks for literally millions of expectant moviegoers worldwide – myself included: “Already ruined the film for me. People are tired of woke casting.”
Already ruined the film for me. People are tired of woke casting. pic.twitter.com/13eNsCjybh
— Corey Walker 🇺🇸 (@CoreyWriting) January 30, 2026
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.
Hollywood screwed up with Kids Classical Books like Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Winnie the Pooh what other kids books with they screw around with making them into Adult Humor
To truly understand Hollywood’s motives you have to understand that to survive and thrive in the entertainment industry you have to surrender your integrity and morality and accept satanism.
I’m actually surprised Nyongo’0 wasn’t cast as Ulysses and Matt Damon as Helen of Troy.
Matt would have been prettier, ongo is uglier than hell once you can make her features out
Albinos aren’t pretty or handsome just because they are freakishly light
What? Nyong’o has very dark skin and is pretty. She has a nice butt, too.
She’s gross. It doesn’t make her pretty because she’s so dark.
Just wait till the sequel – TROY II, or HELEN, The RETURN!! in which Helen will kick lots of bottoms, whoever she is played by. So, come to think of it, Matt Damon would probably be quite good in the part. (A guess, as I have never seen him in anything as I have tried to avoid the product of Hollywood for many years now).
I would actually watch a movie with Damon as Helen of Troy. That sounds pretty darn entertaining.
At least it isn’t Whoopi Goldberg.
Not a whole lot of difference other than the age.
I’m actually surprised Nyongo’0 wasn’t cast as Ulysses and Matt Damon as Helen of Troy.
Now that would be interesting.
I’m seeing Moms Mabley as Helen of Troy and Rip Taylor as Ulysses. (angry negress and screaming queen casting)
Or Schlitzie the Pinhead from Freaks as Helen and Lurch from the Addams Family as Ulysses. (microcephaly victim and gigantism sufferer casting)
Or Eleanor Roosevelt as Helen and Stephen Hawking as Ulysses. (crippled first lady and quadraplegic egghead casting)
The casting possibilities of AI remakes are endless! Out woke the woke.
The more black the history and myths of Europe are portrayed the more blacks will appear to be responsible for whatever they blame on Europeans. That is just logical, but not “my truth.”
vote with your wallet . its the most effective protest and doesnt require you to burn anything down .
The casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy is ridiculous and offensive but Mat Damon is also a piss poor choice to play Odysseus. Homer described the man as having huge thighs, broad shoulders, brawny arms and a massive chest. He’s gotten in good shape for some of his roles but he’ll never look like that and nobody can broaden their shoulders no matter how much body building they do. A man either has Clint Walker broad shoulders or he doesn’t. Odysseus was the only suitor in “The Odyssey” strong enough to draw his famous bow.
It’s like hardly anybody has actually read “The Oddyssey” or “The Illiad.” I bet Nolan has, so there’s no excuse for his casting choices. Nobody believes there were any black African Achaean Greeks, and only loose rags were able to hide Odysseus’s magnificent physique (although not his broad shoulders.)
Guess I’ll be missing the IMAX adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Who gives a sh*t anyway.
I was never partial to Greek literature.
I think “The Odyssey” is better than “The Iliad.” In “The Iliad” this or that mythical Greek God or Goddess affected every back and forth of the war. even trivial stuff. And the story of a man lost in the Mediterranean trying to return home is more compelling than the story of the Greek King, Agamemnon of Mycenae, starting a war to conquer King Priam’s Sparta under the fake excuse of “the face that launched a thousand ships.”
Ancient Greek stories had good themes but they were fantasies.
Has everyone been asleep at the wheel? This has been going on for decades. Hollywood has given black actors lead roles, and any interracial partners 98% of the time it’s black men with white women. They push this narrative.
Blacks make up 13% of the population, yet they are well overrepresented in tv commercials! It’s absurd.
Leave it to Hollywood to shove this garbage down our throats
You are right. It is no different from all the television shows and commercials attempting to hasten the demise of white people and the Christianity. Sub-Saharan Africa had no written language and so no history beyond oral myths. Even if they had writing, what great achievements would they record? What do we do with people who live among us, but have no discernible prior history, philosophical or scientific achievement among their own nations? They can join us, but largely do not do so. Marvel creates Wakanda to help them feel better about themselves, but really it is a slap in the face.
Marvel Comics created the Black Panther in “Fantastic Four” #52, published in July 1966, which was two years after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act and so a super studly, ultra educated and intelligent black character from a black African country much more technologically advanced than any Western country (snort!) was unnecessary, but except for the super science of fictional Wakanda, he was a very good character. He was one of my favorites as a boy. Marvel has since gone full retard on the character and his ridiculous homeland of fictional Wakanda. Hell, the second movie didn’t even have him in it. It tried to pass off his sister or whoever as the Black Panther and the Sub Mariner as a Mexican. No wonder it flopped. It deserved to. I sure didn’t watch it, not even for free.
And I’m sick of “woke” whities making fake Holidays like “Juneteenth” and other crap to make black Americans feel better about having few accomplishments and contributions to America and absolutely none to its formation and War for Independence from Britain. That shit only appeals to racial bigots, black ones and white leftists. Just one more reason to hate Alzheimer Joe’s former handlers. Now all he has are nurse caregivers although I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the federal government pays for that at premium wages. I’d be shocked if it isn’t but I have no doubt us taxpayers foot the bill. I wonder if we still pay the Easter Bunny to hide his debilitating Alzheimer’s disease as he steadily wastes away into a drooling imbecile and death?
Tremont:
What you say is true but it only works if people willingly open their mouths and swallow. And there’s no one holding a gun to anyone’s head forcing them to consume that Hollyweird tripe. Thus the onus is on people to say hell no to the Hollyweird sh*t show. That’s an exercise in freedom of conscience and free will
I predict this version of “The Odyssey” will flop by the standards of the great expectations for it. Too bad. I’ve enjoyed all of Christopher Nolan’s movies up until now very much but I won’t watch this crap.
I’m still waiting for movies with a white Shaka Zulu and Nelson Mandela.
In the 1990s Russians were asked what they knew about America and almost all of them said that blacks were 70% of the American population — when told that blacks were only 12%, Russians would not believe it because all American movies, media, tv, music, everything they saw had nothing but blacks in it. This was 30 years ago! Now with rap as the world’s official (forced) non-white Muzak, the whole world thinks the USA is a black country with a minority of white Klan types like the former South Africa. I’m not American and I love the USA but I have to say that y’all gotta massive PR problem going on in America regarding blacks and their constantly proclaimed “oppression”. Nowhere in the world has such a minority been so pampered and indulged for so long yet still screaming that they’re under the “whip of whitey”. Egged on by white liberal females who just love black man-white woman couples to prove they’re not “right wing” ot their facebook hag “friends” hence the ubiquity of mixed race couples in commercials and movies. And it’s all getting worse not better.
All true, all disgusting and all contemptible. And all of that is the result of lefties, who are severely deranged and retarded when it comes to blacks and whites. They go beyond malevolence into utter evil. And it’s always blacks and whites they obsess over and not other races, who only get honorable mention on rare occasions. Negritos are never mentioned at all and are unknown to ignorant lefties.
I’ve noticed that lefty reverse racists and anti white black racists hate me because I pork so many black chicks. And the retards call me a racist for doing it. Talk about deranged.
I think it is time to cast someone like Nicole Kidman to play Cleopatra or Sacajawega;
Do you think Cleopatra was sub-Saharan?
Well, Cleopatra WAS a white Macedonian Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, so Nicole kidman could play her in a movie.
Minorities find it offensive and off putting when brown people play whites. They hate it too.
She’s ugly. Maybe if she were not so ugly it wouldn’t be so forced, but it’s the compelled speech that she’s pretty along with the theft of cultural identity. A two for troll.
Lupita Nyong’o is pretty aand definitely not ugly and she has a nice ass.
She is an offensive casting choice, though. It’s like casting Matt Damon as MLK Jr. would be…..but of course that will never happen because only whites can be slandered, belittled abused and grossly misrepresented with in America…….with complete impunity.
Definitely ugly is right
Just another DEI movie turd squeezed out of the Democrat commie controlled Hollywood movie studios rectum. One has to wonder from a purely business standpoint that given that the vast majority of movies are made using the DEI formula have cost the studios billions upon billions in profit over the past twenty year, why do these entertainment companies continue their self inflicted march to financial ruin? Why haven’t the stockholders in these publicly traded corporations sued the CEOs for breach of fiduciary trust. Is this all some sort of nefarious money laundering scheme on a grand scale or just plain ideological stupidity?
Helen of Wakanda. They wasn’t Greeks — they wuz Kangz!
Can’t wait for the woke version of Gone with the Wind with A.I. Hattie McDaniel cast as Scarlett O’Hara and A.I. Vivien Leigh cast as Aunt Jemima: “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies, Miss Scarlett!”
Up is down in Clown World.
Nolan should have cast Sydney Sweeney as Helen.
Movies today are a joke. HellyWeird has always been a satanic cesspool. They used publicity agents and paid media to cover up. Now they don’t cover up. They blatantly shove their satanic crap in our faces and if we don’t like it we are racist or some-kind-a-phobe.
I do not recall the last movie I paid for in a theater. The only movie streaming I have is Amazon because of the free delivery crap, which they F-us annually with exorbitant fees that are more than the $2.00 shipping fees they don’t charge. And the s**t movies on Amz Prime are dumb, boring, all the same predictable plot formulas, rude, crude, overly violent and satanic in nature.
Netflix has good movies mixed in with all the unwatchable crap such as lots of action movies starring tiny chicks and the pedophile obscenities that caused millions of customers to cancel their subscriptions, which cost the company billions and forced it to withdraw the filth from its lineup, but I eventually watched every movie it has that’s worth watching so I let the service lapse. Naturally they lowered the price from ten bucks a month to eight and added some movies I wanted to watch.
I streamed those movies for free…..ha haw!
Tubi is free on Samsung TVs and has a whole lot of good movies.
Just rename Achilles Shaka Zulu and make the transformation complete.
Achilles isn’t in “The Odyssey” but it’s too late. A black actor was already cast as Achilles in some shitty BBC production entitled “Troy: Fall of a City” instead of the correct title, “The Iliad,” for extra stupidity and maximum offense in 2018. To add to that rank, anti white racial bigotry, the production even had Zeus, the King of the very white mythical Greek Gods, portrayed by a black actor. Truly offensive and obscene and it unsurprisingly flopped.
Of course, whites are never cast as black characters but the reverse is commonplace and repugnant. Anybody who watches shows like “Bridgerton” and other anti white trash like it deserves to be shipped off to Northen Nigeria, Rwanda or the the Republic of the Congo. It wouldn’t be necessary to ban them from returning to America or the UK because none of them would survive the “multicultural” experience.
I forgot, the spirit of dead Achilles from the Underworld appears to Odysseus and they have a brief conversation. Helen of Sparta (She left Troy after the events of the Iliad and went back to Sparta and her husband Menalaus) meets the son of Odysseus (I forget his name) briefly and helps him.
The 2019 docudrama “Breakthrough” featured black actors portraying the two white heroes of the true story. Firefighter Tommy Shine rescued the teen and Dr. Jeremy Garret saved his life. No matter how much the filmmakers might wish it, they were not black.
Of course, but for the progressives, facts are always irrelevant and subordinate to the narrative. Fortunately, as these comments show, few any longer put up with that bogos narrative.
Christopher Nolan lost my respect completely with his incomprehensible “Inception” storyline and its ear-splitting soundtrack..
In any case, Matt Damon is a joke as Ulysses, compared with Kurt Douglas, or even Armand Assante (who did have a nice sequence with Vanessa Williams as Calypso.) This turkey is dead in the water. Of the Greek myths that Hollywood has mangled, Ulysses has fared the best. The old 50s Kurt Douglas is a high bar and so was Assante. This film will be a joke.
This casting is really laughable, something right out of the Bee. The woman isn’t beautiful, and bears no relation to what is described in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Forget about woke; why would a competent director make such an obviously wrong choice? Why would the movie’s financial backers allow it? Was no sampling of audience reaction done outside of Hollywood? It’s a shame that the opportunity and financing to make a great movie was just thrown out the window.
It is not Hollywood, per se, it is wacky British societal devolution that is the problem.
Did any watch the last episodes of WOLF HALL where good black actresses were given parts that all the world knows were of white women – there were also superfluous black men in roles that no black man ever performed in Tudor England.
It is an absurd affectation. It was laugh out loud hilarious and ruined what had been the best series the BBC had put on in a decade. Thomas Cromwell’s son marrying the black sister of Jane Seymour who is lily white as portrayed in the series.
All well and good if you want to put on a novelty version of a Shakespeare play – performances of plays are ephemeral. The difference is film is a document and your stupid decisions will never be allowed to be forgot. Your stupidity will forever be documented and what might have been something timeless becomes as timely as a detergent advertisement.
Stupidity has become an asset in the modern world of the Left.
Just another reason why I NEVER go to movies and REFUSE to watch their DEI garbage on any sort of TV. When they portrayed Cleopatra as black, I KNEW it was false. I remember a Greek archeologist being incensed at the thought so I took a deeper dive into history and discovered that the Egyptian Pharaohs in the Ptolemy dynasty were GREEK (which I knew but didn’t think too much about) having taken over Egypt when Alexander the Great died leaving no heirs. Cleo was the LAST of that 400 YEAR dynasty, the ONLY one who ever learned to speak the Egyptian language, and if you take an actual look at her coins, was definitely NOT Elizabeth Taylor. The obsession with changing the skin color of historical figures is pathetic. Sadly, way too many people STILL spend the money to justify the continuance of this ridiculous trend.
Maybe some Ray Harryhausen styled stop-motion animation could save the film.
Why not? he did “Jason and the Argonauts.”
My favorite is “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,” featuring Ray’s most awesome creation, the Cyclops.
I decided not to see the movie a couple weeks ago (and I’ve actually read Homer’s poem) when I learned Matt Damon was playing Odysseus. (?????) Matt Damon looks like Howdy Doody. I never even bought him as Jason Bourne. This casting of Helen only seals the deal. Helen is supposed to be such a stunner that I didn’t even buy Diane Kruger as Helen in 2004’s TROY, and Kruger is certainly pretty, but not enough to “launch 1,000 ships.” Nyong’o is at the same level: pretty-but-not-stunning, aside from being the wrong race. (Incidentally, Nyong’o is of the Luo tribe in Kenya, where the Masai are considered the best-looking tribe.)
2023’s SNOW WHITE had a Snow White who wasn’t white and underperformed expectations at the box office. You’d think the backers of THE ODYSSEY might have noticed.
Helen is not a central character in the Odyssey. Who is playing Penelope? Or Circe? Nolan may have felt that Helen is a riskable side item.
Envy, Cultural Appropriation (hello!!), and hatred of the West.
Demoralization and destruction of the (formerly) Free World is the totalitarians’ goal. Blacks are merely tools in that destruction.
We are In Their Way.
Ulysees men were turned into Pigs by Circe lets see all those in this rewrite into Turkeys