People are discovering classic war movie on streaming after The Odyssey

Written by one of the creators of Game of Thrones, Christopher Nolan was once set to direct the film.

Both are adaptations of Ancient Greek poems credited to Homer. The Odyssey is obviously based on the work of the same name, while Troy is a loose adaptation of The Iliad. The Iliad takes place before the events of The Odyssey, with which it shares several characters.

Streaming on the service NOW, Troy begins with Agamemnon (Brian Cox, Succession) - the ruthless King of the Greeks - determined to conquer the titular city, located in present-day Turkey.

One day, Agamemnon's brother Menelaus (Ireland's own Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin) visits him at his castle. Menelaus reveals that his young wife, Helen (Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds), has fled from their home in Sparta, leaving him for Troy's prince, Paris (Orlando Bloom, Lord of the Rings).

Agamemnon sees this as the chance to finally strike Troy, assembling 1,000 ships and 50,000 men to storm the heavily fortified city. His soldiers include the loyal Odysseus (Sean Bean, Game of Thrones), and the more rebellious and conflicted Achilles (Brad Pitt, Fury), with the latter clashing with the Greek King over his warmongering.

Amidst all this, Paris, his older brother and noble warrior in his own right, Hector (Eric Bana, Black Hawk Down), and their kindly king father, Priam (Peter O'Toole, Lawrence of Arabia), attempt to defend their homeland against the Greek hordes inbound.

Watch the trailer for Troy right here:

Troy was directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force, Das Boot, In the Line of Fire), while its script was penned by David Benioff (co-creator of Game of Thrones). The film's starry cast also includes Garrett Hedlund (Inside Llewyn Davis), Julie Christie (Darling), Saffron Burrows (Circle of Friends), and a young Rose Byrne (Sunshine).

On its own merits, Troy is well worth seeking out. The performances are great (particularly Bana, Cox, Gleeson, and O'Toole), the locations are gorgeous (the movie was shot in Malta and Mexico), the battle scenes feel massive, and the showdowns are epic. That said, the film is also fascinating as a companion piece to The Odyssey.

It is worth noting that Troy is only loosely based on The Iliad. The 2004 screen version condenses the central conflict to a few days, while adding elements from other Greek works, such as the Trojan Horse. Plus, certain characters who survived The Iliad, then appearing in Homer's Odyssey and Nolan's subsequent adaptation, don't make it to the end credits of Troy.

Despite this, Petersen's Troy and Nolan's The Odyssey do share similarities. Both use their fantastical source materials to explore humanity's relationship with war. Benioff's screenplay for the 2004 movie depicts how the unchecked ambition and pride of leaders can bring about conflict which leads to mass death. Nolan's Odyssey script, meanwhile, is about the aftermath of war and how it pollutes those who experience it and plunges the world further into darkness.

Also, both The Odyssey and Troy downplay the role of the Gods from the source material. Benioff's screenplay is completely non-fantastical, playing out more like a historical war movie. Nolan's Odyssey adaptation features plenty of fantastical elements, as well as one Greek god in the form of Athena (played by Zendaya). Yet, perhaps not all is as it seems.

As we noted in our review of the 2026 movie: "There is some ambiguity as to [Athena's] presence. Is it really her, guiding him on his journey, trying to protect him from Zeus' wrath? Or is she just an imagination of an increasingly battered, world-weary Odysseus, to whom he projects his inner hopes, fears and regrets?"

Similarly, one could read The Odyssey's supernatural elements - given they are only depicted when its characters are recounting stories or recalling the past - as not having actually transpired. Instead, these fantastical tales could just be the way these deeply religious and traditional characters process their trauma.

The similarities sometimes are even more specific. Both epics feature a statue's head being decapitated in a pivotal moment. Plus, it's fun to see Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus go from being played by Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson and Sean Bean to being portrayed by Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, and Matt Damon.

Drawing further comparisons between Troy and The Odyssey is that Christopher Nolan was once set to direct the 2004 film. Petersen at one stage left the project to attempt to make a Batman vs. Superman movie. In the wake of this, a post-Insomnia Nolan was then hired to make Troy.

The BvS adaptation fell through, however, and Petersen returned to the Greek epic. As a reported "consolation prize", Warner Bros. offered Nolan the chance to make Batman Begins, and the rest is history.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Nolan was asked if he would ever helm an adaptation of The Iliad. In response, he said:

"I actually was attached to the film Troy 20 years ago. That was a great script written by David Benioff based primarily on The Iliad.

"It didn't work out, but I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would do the [Trojan] horse. Because even though the horse isn't in The Iliad, David put it into the script. So, I had to sort of work out my approach to how you would portray this with some kind of credibility when the whole audience knows this stuff with Greeks.

"The approach that's in [The Odyssey] is something I worked out a long time ago."

How to watch Troy and The Odyssey

The Odyssey is in cinemas now. You can read our review of the movie and our report of people flying from Ireland to London to see it "as Nolan intended" here and here.

Troy is available to watch on the streaming service NOW.