Seth Meyers has mocked Elon Musk’s plans to use generative AI to produce a historically accurate version of Homer’s The Odyssey, following massive global ticket sales for Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation and ongoing conservative backlash over the film’s diverse casting choices.
Late-night television host Seth Meyers turned his sights on Elon Musk and conservative critics this week after Christopher Nolan’s hit adventure film The Odyssey defied expectations at the global box office. Despite right-wing attempts to brand the movie a commie woke-fest over its diverse casting—most notably Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy—the epic hauled in $264 million worldwide during its opening weekend.
Meyers said that with the second presidency of Donald Trump, it had been pushed that the era of woke was over
, with those on the right gloating over what they felt was coming. Ever since casting was announced for Nolan’s big-budget epic, the right had dismissed it as a commie woke-fest
due to its diversity. How dare you cast popular actors in fictional roles in a movie adaptation of a poem written 2,700 years ago,
Meyers said. Much of the anger was aimed at Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o who had been cast as Helen of Troy, a character who hatched from an egg that was the result of Zeus turning into a swan who had sex with a goddess
, or as Meyers joked white lady stuff
. The host joked that Maga pundits had suddenly become “poem cops”. But the right’s favourite saying you go woke, you go broke
was once again proven wrong when The Odyssey opened to a massive $264m box office haul worldwide last weekend. Meyers said it meant that “woke is back” and also that the right’s inability to predict a hit was because most of them haven’t seen a movie in theatres since Fast and Furious
.
The film’s blockbuster debut marked the best global weekend debut of Nolan’s career, more than $264 million, after it opened last Friday, eclipsing prior hits like The Dark Knight trilogy and Oppenheimer. Yet the commercial success did little to quell the online uproar from critics who took issue with the historical and mythological departures in the film’s casting and costumes.
Elon Musk Pledges an AI-Generated Odyssey via Grok Imagine
Enter the world’s richest man. Elon Musk, who has been bashing The Odyssey since February after reposting social media claims that casting Nyong’o as Helen was an insult to Homer’s original description of a fair-skinned, blonde beauty, announced a technological counter-offensive. Musk stated on X that his artificial intelligence platform would soon step in to correct Hollywood’s perceived artistic failures.
Elon Musk, billionaire owner of X, via Fox News
One of the film’s most vocal critics was Elon Musk, the world’s richest and “weirdest” man who has now claimed he will make a historically accurate
version of the film with his AI tool Grok. Musk said Wednesday he plans to create a feature-length version of Homer’s “The Odyssey” that is historically accurate
and faithful to the author’s intentions. The 55-year-old reposted a three-minute scene from the mythological poem on X that a user said was created by X’s Grok Imagine. 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,
the billionaire owner of X posted. Musk also responded positively to an X user’s pitch to give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly accurate ships, armor, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek.
Musk has been bashing “The Odysseysince February, when he reposted a user who claimed casting Nyong’o would be an
insultto Homer since she was described in the poem as a
fair skinned, blonde, and ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ because she was so beautiful that men started a war over her.” Chris Nolan has lost his integrity,
Musk responded at the time. He also responded with “Trueafter reposting conservative commentator Matt Walsh saying,
Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman.”
Seth Meyers and Late-Night Critics Deliver a Sharp Rebuke
Musk’s pledge to deploy Grok Imagine for a feature-length mythological epic quickly became prime fodder for late-night comedy. Meyers wasted no time skewering the billionaire’s project on television, deadpanning to his audience that he was eager to see the results.
Seth Meyers, late-night host, via The Guardian
Elon Musk wanting to make his own historically accurate
AI version of The Odyssey is a headline ripe for the late night picking — Kimmel guest host Colman Domingo already had his say, and in the video above Seth Meyers gleefully wades in too. Wow, I can't wait for that to suck,
says Meyers. “Elon Musk is going to use fake actors stolen from real actors to make a fake movie that’s a real version of a fake story. I’m so excited for the AI dialogue. I hope it’s like ChatGPT. ‘Odysseus, you must return home.’ ‘You got it, I can’t wait to embark on this journey with you! Let’s keep it light and fun! And I’m here for whatever you need.'” Also, what do you mean historically accurate? It’s a myth! Are you also making a historically accurate version of The Santa Clause?
Unpacking the Mythology, Bronze Age History, and Casting Backlash
Cultural commentators have pointed out that demanding strict historical accuracy for The Odyssey presents significant hurdles, given that the poem itself occupies a semifictional period in Greek history. Historians note that few records exist of the time before the Greek Dark Ages, between the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of “classical” Greece. While Sparta is named as one of the nations that went to war against Troy, there is no conclusive proof that there ever existed a King Menelaus, who went to war to recover his wife, Helen, let alone the city of Troy.
Furthermore, analysts note that a strictly literal translation of Homer’s original text would pose unique cinematic challenges. The 24-book poem relies heavily on repetitive oral formulas—such as the deathless gods
or the bright-eyed goddess
—designed to help ancient performers memorize hundreds of lines of poetry, a stylistic feature that would sound strange to a world more used to Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter.
As for the casting controversy surrounding Helen of Troy, commentators emphasize that focusing purely on rigid modern racial categories ignores the Middle East and North Africa’s proximity to Greece within Odysseus’s Mediterranean world. With Nolan’s blockbuster clearing $264 million globally in its opening weekend, the market has thoroughly rejected the notion that modern audiences demand a narrow, homogenous aesthetic for ancient epics.
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