Director Christopher Nolan has defended his decision to cast rapper Travis Scott in The Odyssey after receiving severe backlash.
The famed director addressed the controversy surrounding Scott’s appearance in the upcoming film adaptation of the ancient Greek epic in a new interview with Time magazine published Tuesday.
“I cast him because I wanted to nod to the idea that this story has been passed down as an oral poem, similar to rap,” Nolan, 55, explained.
According to Deadline, the 35-year-old “Sicko Mode” rapper’s role in “Odyssey” was first revealed in an exclusive TV teaser trailer released in January.
“War, man, trick, a trick to break down the walls of Troy,” Scott, dressed as a storyteller, shouts in the clip, as footage from the Trojan War flashes onto the screen. “It burst into flames and screamed to the ground.”
But viewers quickly flocked to social media to question Nolan’s surprising decision to feature the hip-hop icon in his latest film.
“Either Nolan doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore or he really wants an Oscar for this ‘movie’,” one person tweeted following news of Scott’s role in the film.
“Yeah, this will work just as well as putting out forest fires,” added another.
“If you thought Oppenheimer’s bomb was big, you haven’t seen anything yet,” a third critic commented, while a fourth criticized the rapper’s casting as “overblown.”
However, other viewers pointed out that Nolan and Scott previously worked together on the filmmaker’s film Tenet.
The “Rodeo” artist’s song “The Plan” was used as the theme song for the 2020 sci-fi thriller film.
“So Travis wrote a song for Tenet,” one fan wrote on Instagram amid backlash.
“Tyler was on ‘Marty Supreme,’ but it wasn’t a big deal,” he added, referring to his role as Tyler, the Creator on last year’s ‘Marty Supreme.’
A representative for Scott did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Elsewhere in the Time magazine interview, director Nolan explained that he once again hired a team of experts to make The Odyssey as accurate as possible. This was previously the case with 2014’s Interstellar.
“With ‘Interstellar,’ we think about what’s our best guess about the future. When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s really the same thing,” Nolan said. “What is our best thinking? How can we use it to create a world?”
“I hope they enjoy the movie, even if they don’t agree with everything. We’ve had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar,” he added. But I just don’t want people to think I’m taking this on lightly. ”
Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 17th.
In addition to Matt Damon as Odysseus, the upcoming epic fantasy action film will also feature big-name actors, including Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Zendaya as Athena.
