Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. wanted Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to become the latest cautionary tale about Hollywood “going woke.”

Instead, the movie appears to be becoming one of the biggest hits of the summer.

For weeks, Musk and Trump Jr. attacked Nolan’s casting choices, expressing outrage that Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, who is Black, had reportedly been selected to portray Helen of Troy and that transgender actor Elliot Page had been cast as a Greek soldier.

Musk went so far as to accuse the acclaimed director of “desecrating Homer.”

“He will never live it down,” Musk wrote in May.

Trump Jr. followed with a social media attack containing anti-trans language and demanded that Hollywood stop forcing such casting choices on audiences.

But as opening-weekend projections began pointing toward a worldwide debut of roughly $200 million, media critic Brian Lowry argued that the backlash had accomplished only one thing:

It made the critics look ridiculous.

“Nolan’s film merely makes those conservative provocateurs sound foolish,” Lowry wrote in an analysis published by MS NOW.

The controversy had been brewing long before audiences actually saw the film.

Musk and other right-wing commentators framed Nolan’s diverse casting as evidence of a cynical political agenda. The assumption was familiar: audiences would reject the movie because filmmakers had prioritized representation over fidelity to the ancient source material.

Yet the early commercial response appears to be telling a very different story.

Lowry described the attacks as part of an increasingly predictable anti-“woke” campaign in which casting announcements are treated as cultural emergencies before anyone has watched the finished product.

This time, the targets were not an inexperienced director or a struggling franchise.

They had chosen Christopher Nolan.

The filmmaker entered the release with enormous credibility after the global success of Oppenheimer, which earned nearly $1 billion worldwide and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

His name alone has become a major attraction for moviegoers, particularly those willing to pay premium prices for IMAX and other large-format screenings.

That made the prediction of disaster especially risky.

Nolan’s films have long been marketed as major theatrical events. Audiences expect elaborate visuals, ambitious storytelling and casts filled with recognizable stars.

The Odyssey appears to follow that formula on an enormous scale.

Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway occupy central roles, while the wider ensemble reportedly includes Zendaya, Mia Goth, rapper Travis Scott and numerous other high-profile performers.

Lowry argued that Nolan’s status allows him to attract major stars even for small parts, broadening the movie’s appeal without allowing any single casting decision to overwhelm the story.

“The beauty of being Nolan, at this point, is that his reputation and track record enable him to attract identifiable talent,” Lowry wrote.

That includes Nyong’o and Page, whose presence generated weeks of outrage despite their reported screen time being extremely limited.

According to Lowry, each actor appears for only a few minutes during the film’s nearly three-hour running time.

That detail made the scale of the backlash look even more disproportionate.

Musk and Trump Jr. had portrayed the casting as a defining corruption of Homer’s epic. Yet the performers they attacked were not reportedly dominating the adaptation or displacing the movie’s primary stars.

They were members of a large ensemble.

Lowry joked that the person who truly endured the “slings and arrows” was Nolan, who faced relentless criticism over roles that ultimately represented only a small portion of the finished film.

The director refused to turn the dispute into a public feud.

When questioned about the criticism, Nolan reportedly dismissed it as something that “comes with the territory.”

He called the outrage “irrelevant.”

That response may have deprived Musk and Trump Jr. of the confrontation they wanted.

There was no furious press tour.

No extended argument on social media.

No attempt by Nolan to present himself as a political warrior.

He simply released the film.

Then audiences began buying tickets.

Opening-weekend forecasts suggested The Odyssey could earn approximately $200 million worldwide, a powerful launch even for an expensive summer blockbuster.

The final figures could rise or fall, and projections are not the same as verified box-office receipts. But the early outlook severely weakens predictions that the casting controversy would drive audiences away.

Lowry argued that the expected performance undermines one of the right’s most repeated cultural slogans: “Go woke, go broke.”

The phrase is frequently used whenever a film includes diverse casting, LGBTQ+ characters or other creative choices conservatives view as politically motivated.

When a project fails, critics point to its representation as the cause.

When a diverse film succeeds, the slogan is often quietly abandoned until the next controversy appears.

The Odyssey may prove particularly damaging to that narrative because Musk and Trump Jr. publicly attached their names to the backlash.

Musk, one of the world’s most influential social media figures, did not merely criticize the casting. He predicted lasting humiliation for Nolan.

Trump Jr. portrayed the movie as another example of Hollywood forcing unwanted ideology upon the public.

If the film becomes a major commercial success, both men will have helped generate free publicity for a project they urged audiences to reject.

Their attacks may even have increased curiosity.

Moviegoers who had not followed the production suddenly knew Nolan had made an ambitious new epic. Fans debated the casting, shared trailers and argued over what an adaptation of Homer should look like.

The outrage machine produced attention.

Nolan’s film converted that attention into ticket sales.

The episode also highlighted a basic tension in modern cultural politics.

Musk and Trump Jr. positioned themselves as defenders of artistic tradition while demanding that a filmmaker obey their preferred racial and gender rules.

They accused Hollywood of politicizing art while turning individual casting decisions into national political controversies.

They warned audiences that the movie represented ideological manipulation before seeing how those characters functioned within the story.

Nolan’s response was far simpler.

The criticism did not matter.

The film would speak for itself.

Lowry also praised Nolan for avoiding an angry reaction that could have elevated the right-wing campaign. By refusing to take the bait, he kept the focus on the movie rather than the controversy surrounding it.

Now he is enjoying strong reviews and blockbuster projections, while the people who forecast disaster are left explaining why audiences did not follow their instructions.

Musk and Trump Jr. wanted The Odyssey to become proof that diverse casting destroys successful entertainment.

Instead, its early performance suggests audiences were far more interested in Nolan’s spectacle than in obeying a social media boycott.

The supposed cultural provocation occupied only minutes of screen time.

The outrage lasted for weeks.

And if the box-office projections hold, the “losing fight” will belong not to Nolan, Nyong’o or Page—but to the men who loudly predicted that audiences would reject them.