Christopher Nolan hasn’t even released a trailer for his upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, and Hollywood’s newest culture-war grenade is already exploding across conservative media.
On his Wednesday night Newsmax show, Rob Finnerty unloaded on reports surrounding the film’s rumored casting choices — particularly speculation that actor Elliot Page could portray Achilles and Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o may take on the role of Helen of Troy.
“Famous Hollywood director Christopher Nolan… is making a movie based on the book, the poem, The Odyssey,” Finnerty began, before diving straight into the outrage that’s become almost mandatory whenever Hollywood touches a classic story.
“And I’m not kidding when I say any of this,” he said. “But the role of Achilles will reportedly be played by Elliot Page. Looks like a guy — formerly Ellen Page — meaning the most famous warrior in history, not just Greek history, all of history, Achilles is about to be played by a transgender woman in a brand-new movie.”
Finnerty then twisted the knife with a comparison designed for maximum cable-news combustion.
“You might remember Ellen Page from the hit movie Juno 20 years ago, where she was definitely a woman,” he added.
Page, who publicly transitioned in 2020 and has spoken openly about undergoing gender-affirming surgery, has indeed been confirmed as part of Nolan’s sprawling ensemble cast. But here’s the detail missing from much of the outrage cycle: no official announcement has confirmed which role Page is actually playing.
That didn’t stop Finnerty from launching into a full-on defense of Achilles’ warrior credentials.
He described the mythical Greek fighter as “a superhuman warrior, deadly on the battlefield,” before invoking the gold standard for Hollywood sword-and-sandal masculinity: Brad Pitt’s shredded portrayal in the 2004 blockbuster Troy.
“We’ve gone from Brad Pitt to a girl who dresses as a guy who’s five foot one, 118 pounds,” Finnerty scoffed. “That’s the person that’s going to be playing the greatest warrior in history, because to the Left, that is normal. That’s not okay.”
Then came the second front in the culture-war siege: Helen of Troy. Finnerty displayed a classical depiction of Helen while teeing up his next complaint. “She was “the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, whose beauty was unparalleled,” he said, before objecting to reports that Lupita Nyong’o — who is Kenyan-Mexican and Black — could portray the iconic figure. “A woman who was definitely white is going to be played by Lupita Nyong’o,” Finnerty declared. “You might be looking at this photograph saying, ‘I think Lupita Nyong’o is Black,’ and you’re correct.”
“I’ve got nothing against Lupita,” he continued. “But I do have a problem with the complete rewriting of history. Helen of Troy was not Black. That’s not me being mean. That’s me telling the truth.”
Of course, there’s one inconvenient wrinkle in the outrage narrative: The Odyssey isn’t history.
Homer’s ancient epic — along with companion tale The Iliad — blends mythology, oral tradition and literary invention. While historians generally believe some version of the Trojan War may have occurred during the Late Bronze Age, central figures like Achilles, Hector and Helen of Troy are widely considered legendary or entirely fictional.
Still, that nuance tends to disappear once Hollywood discovers another prestige blockbuster ready-made for political trench warfare.
And Nolan — the director behind Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight trilogy and Interstellar — now finds himself caught between two modern Hollywood realities: studios desperate to showcase “inclusive” casting, and audiences increasingly exhausted by what critics see as identity politics grafted onto beloved classics.
The result? Yet another ancient story dragged into America’s never-ending culture war — where even mythical Greeks apparently need DEI consultants now.
