This I have to see…
The Odyssey has spent close to 3,000 years being translated, reworked and argued over. Now Elon Musk reckons artificial intelligence can make the definitive film version before the end of 2026.
Musk claimed on X that xAI’s video-generation tool, Grok Imagine, will produce a full-length adaptation of Homer’s epic that is “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer”.
The announcement came alongside a three-minute AI-generated scene featuring Odysseus and Calypso. There is no confirmed cast, director, runtime, distributor or release plan at this stage, although Musk has already given the project a deadline.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
His post arrived shortly after Christopher Nolan’s own adaptation opened in cinemas, pulling in more than $264 million worldwide during its first weekend and earning strong reviews.
Musk had been criticising Nolan’s film for months, taking issue with its casting and accusing the director of making the story “woke” and straying too far from the original text.
The promise of historical accuracy is slightly complicated by the fact that The Odyssey is a mythological poem involving gods, witches, sirens, a cyclops and several fairly creative uses of magic. It is not exactly a straightforward historical record.
The footage shared by Musk has also faced some early scrutiny. Viewers pointed out ships with oars that did not appear to reach the water, rowers facing the wrong way and armour that looked more modern than ancient Greek.
Those details could presumably be fixed. The larger challenge will be turning short AI-generated clips into a coherent feature film.
Video-generation tools have improved quickly, but producing more than 90 minutes of consistent characters, performances, dialogue and storytelling remains a major technical hurdle. A convincing film needs more than a sequence of impressive-looking shots, particularly when those shots have to connect to one another.
Musk also said he would be “down” to give Mel Gibson $100 million to make a separate live-action version using period-accurate armour and ships, with the dialogue performed in Homeric Greek. No funding or production plans have been confirmed.
For now, Musk’s AI Odyssey remains a three-minute clip and a very ambitious deadline.
Whether it becomes a full film before the year is out – or simply another example of AI struggling with hands, boats and basic continuity – remains to be seen.
