Credit: Universal Pictures

Christopher Nolan took one look at one of Greek mythology’s biggest stories and decided it needed to be absolutely massive. The Odyssey has now sailed into cinemas, bringing Homer’s ancient epic to the big screen as a mythic action movie.

Matt Damon leads the way as Odysseus, the battle-worn king of Ithaca who just wants to get back home after the Trojan War. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Behave. His journey is basically the worst travel itinerary ever dreamed up. What’s not there? From brutal seas, mythical beasts, tempting traps and gods who seem dead set on making his life absolute murder. Meanwhile, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus are left waiting for a man who might never darken the door again.

And then there’s that cast. You have Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron all pile in alongside Damon for Nolan’s huge mythological voyage.

Basically, The Odyssey is not just about finding the road home; it is about what is left of you when you finally stagger through the door. Lucky for you, Netflix has a few such mythic adventures you might want to take a look at after The Odyssey.

Five mythic adventures to stream after The Odyssey

Wrath of the Titans (Jonathan Liebesman, 2012)

Fancy hanging around Ancient Greece a bit longer? Go ahead, then. Wrath of the Titans throws Sam Worthington’s Perseus straight into the Underworld after Zeus gets captured by Hades and Ares. These two start draining his power so they can wake up the massive Titan Kronos. Perseus would much rather keep his head down, but when has mythology cared about anyone’s personal life? Soon enough, he is off with Queen Andromeda and Poseidon’s son Agenor, crossing a labyrinth. He chases down the divine weapons that might stop Kronos from absolutely wrecking everything.

The link to The Odyssey is staring you right in the face, although this is a Greek myth with lots of explosions. Both stories follow heroes dragged away from a simple life because the gods cannot behave themselves. Odysseus is desperate to get back to his family, while Perseus is fighting to keep himself safe, and neither of them gets anything close to an easy shift. This should be your first watch.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (Kang Hei Chul, 2025)

Here is a thrill of a connection for you: Sirens of the Deep is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story A Little Sacrifice, but with all the sea creatures and tempting voices, it feels like one of Homer’s siren stories has wandered into The Witcher. Geralt of Rivia gets hired to investigate attacks on sailors near a seaside kingdom, only to discover humans and merpeople are getting close to war. Then a prince falls in love with the mermaid Sh’eenaz because apparently international diplomacy was not messy enough already.

Geralt has to work out who is stirring up the violence before both kingdoms tear each other apart, and that is where the Odyssey connection really lands. Like Odysseus, he is travelling through a world where the monster in front of you is not always the biggest danger, and nobody is sure of what they seem to be. You cannot trust the voices and, half the time, you cannot trust the people paying you either.

The Old Guard (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2020)

Charlize Theron’s warrior might be called Andy, but her full name is Andromache of Scythia, taken from the Trojan princess whose family was destroyed during the same war that sends Odysseus on his long journey home. That is not just some fancy mythological name chucked in to sound clever, either. Andy has been alive for thousands of years and leads a secret group of immortal fighters who rise up whenever innocent people are in danger. Their latest mission turns out to be a trap set by pharmaceutical boss Steven Merrick, who wants to capture them and make money from their ability to heal.

Then a newly immortal Marine called Nile Freeman gets dragged into their strange existence, and the film starts asking the same sort of question as The Odyssey: what does endless travelling actually do to a person? Odysseus spends ten years desperate to get home, while Andy has wandered for centuries and is not even sure what home means anymore. Immortality sounds brilliant until you realise that everyone you love keeps ageing and leaving you while you still stand there. Bit grim if you ask us.

Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (Zack Snyder, 2023)

Rebel Moon starts with Kora, who is living on the farming moon of Veldt, when Admiral Atticus Noble turns up on behalf of the Motherworld and threatens the entire settlement. So much for a peaceful life, eh? Just then, she leaves with Farmer Gunnar to recruit warriors from across the galaxy. Their journey brings them to former general Titus, sword-wielding Nemesis and a load of fighters who have their own reasons for hating the Imperium. It might be science fiction rather than Greek mythology, but come on, the bones of an old-school epic are sitting right there.

Kora travels from world to world, gathering allies like a mythic hero collecting companions. Unlike Odysseus, though, she is not trying to find the road home. She is choosing to leave safety because staying put would mean giving in, which takes some nerve. Anthony Hopkins also voices Jimmy, an ancient robot who has lost his purpose, giving the story another figure haunted by what he used to be.

Damsel (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2024)

While Odysseus survives the Cyclops by realising how the creature thinks before brute force even comes into it, Princess Elodie faces a similar nightmare in Damsel. She agrees to marry Prince Henry because the match could save her struggling homeland, only to find out Aurea’s royal family has brought her in as a sacrifice. Are you kidding? Before we know it, Henry has launched her into a cavern with a fire-breathing dragon. From there, she has to dodge getting roasted alive while following clues left behind by the women who were killed before her.

Then she finds the really grim part: the royals have been mixing their own blood with each bride’s, fooling the dragon into thinking the sacrifices are their daughters. How evil? The link to The Odyssey comes down to survival through observation, because Elodie cannot overpower the dragon, can she? She has to study the cavern and work out what everyone has been hiding before it is too late.