Director Christopher Nolan never wanted The Odyssey to be just another sword-and-sandals Hollywood epic. “He has an aversion to movie clichés about antiquity,” says Ellen Mirojnick, the film’s costume designer, who previously worked with Nolan on Oppenheimer. “We weren’t aiming for a specific historical period. We were aiming for a timeless one.”

Still, while they avoided making a rigid Bronze Age period piece, Mirojnick did want this timeless story to feel ancient. “It had to carry emotional meaning for a modern audience,” she says. To strike that balance, she used fabrics that would have been available at the time. “There was linen, there was leather, and of course, there was bronze,” she explains. “That was actually another cliché, because in those sword-and-sandals movies, bronze is usually shiny.”

But Mirojnick was stepping into a story that had been over ten years in the making. The Odyssey begins at the end of the Trojan War, with soldiers and their clothes worn down by harsh conditions. “It was a world that was exhausted, haunted, salt-stained, and broken. Every costume had to carry the feeling of that world,” says Mirojnick, who dressed Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his crew in weathered bronze and battle-tested leather. “The look was all about texture, weight, and the wear and tear of the materials. We wanted it to seem like it was truly pulled from the earth.”

Odysseus is a particularly tricky character to costume. “In our story, Odysseus falls apart, rebuilds himself, disguises himself, adapts, and survives. He’s always evolving,” Mirojnick says. “The design challenge was always to let the audience feel his decline without losing the core that truly defined him.” Simplicity turned out to be the best way to show our hero’s changing identity in the different worlds he visits. In the end, she says, “the armor becomes a memory rather than a symbol of power.”

Ithaca, however, was a different story. As Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) wait for Odysseus’s return, a crowd of impatient suitors urges her to choose a new husband. In fact, the only shiny bronze viewers will see in the film is on Penelope’s suitors, like Robert Pattinson’s Antinous, whose clothes are decorated with intricate brass details. “All these men have been sitting there for years, waiting to become king, hoping to be king, so they’re showing off their best,” she says.

Even the gods’ outfits, which could easily have fallen into fantasy clichés, are defined by their practicality. Zendaya’s Athena is expressed through, as Mirojnick puts it, “her simplicity and restraint,” and is fittingly dressed in off-white linen. As a counselor to Odysseus, “her presence needed to move with that calm authority,” she adds. The same goes for Calypso (Charlize Theron), who keeps Odysseus on her island for seven years. “Her costumes are grounded in the reality of her environment, which is nature, eternity, and isolation,” Mirojnick says. “Everything she wears is practical.” Calypso wears a dress with a layer of netting, which Mirojnick imagines the nymph would use for fishing.

Circe is another example of practicality. But instead of a costume that helps her in some way, Mirojnick created a piece that reflected Circe’s enchanting nature and all the people who crossed her path. “She has collected artifacts from every traveler who has passed her door, and she wears them with great pride,” she says. “That’s how she presents herself when the men arrive.”Actors like Melantho and Anne Hathaway as Penelope.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

But Mirojnick took a different approach for the mortal queens.

For Helen (Lupita Nyong’o), the woman who sparked the Trojan War, Mirojnick felt she deserved something like armor. She first found inspiration from a headless statue, which led her to create a brushed bronze chest and shoulder plate for the queen. “I found this huge piece of golden metal. When we tried it on, I asked Lupita, ‘Is this going to be okay? It’s about 30 pounds,'” Mirojnick recalls. Nyong’o responded cheerfully, “I’ve worn 30 pounds of pearls. I can wear 30 pounds of golden metal.”

But the heavy armor wasn’t Nyong’o’s only challenge—she also played Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife. To make the two characters look distinct, Mirojnick dressed Clytemnestra in Tyrian purple, an extremely rare dye made from the mucous glands of sea snails. It was an incredibly labor-intensive process, requiring up to 12,000 snails to produce just one gram of dye.

And while The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his ten-year journey home, his wife Penelope stays in one place. “Instead of changing her look visually, we showed her costumes through subtle shifts in silhouette—like softening or sharpening lines, making layers more separate, and using the palace’s colors,” Mirojnick says. “She holds the kingdom together by staying still, while Odysseus survives by moving.”

Hathaway and Tom Holland as Telemachus.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

When people watch The Odyssey—whether on opening weekend or for generations to come—Mirojnick hopes the striking costumes help capture the timeless appeal of this ancient epic. As she puts it: “We’re not designing a time period. We’re really creating a mythology.”

Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the shift in The Odyssey costumes away from the traditional swordandsandals style

BeginnerLevel Questions

Q What does swordandsandals mean
A Its a classic style for ancient epics featuring simple tunics leather armor gladiator sandals and lots of bronze or gold Think Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans

Q So whats the new style
A Instead of clean shiny armor and togas the new costumes are more realistic gritty and varied Think layered wool weathered leather fur unique cultural patterns and armor that looks functional not just decorative

Q Why are they moving away from the old style
A To make the story feel more authentic and immersive The Bronze Age wasnt a uniform ancient world The new costumes reflect specific cultures and the harsh realities of a 10year war

Q Will there still be helmets and swords
A Yes but theyll look different Helmets might be boars tusk helmets instead of generic Romanstyle crests Swords will be bronze and have unique practical shapes

Q Does this mean the costumes will be boring
A Not at all The new style is often more visually interesting because it focuses on texture characterspecific details and historical diversity A weathered cloak with unique stitching can tell a story just as well as a gold breastplate

AdvancedLevel Questions

Q What specific historical inspiration are designers using instead of the Hollywood ancient world
A Designers are looking at Late Bronze Age Aegean art Minoan jewelry and clothing and Hittite or Near Eastern armor Theyre moving away from the default Roman Empire aesthetic that dominated older epics

Q How does this affect the character of Odysseus
A His costume will likely reflect his cunning and survival skills Instead of a kings fine armor he might wear a travelers practical cloak a simple but wellcrafted bronze knife and clothes that show the wear and tear of his journey It