Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images | Sonja Flemming/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK
Elon Musk has spent much of the last few days tweeting about Christopher Nolan, Lupita Nyong’o and The Odyssey. The richest man in the world has shown no signs of slowing down.
Elon Musk’s latest attacks came after a deluge of social media posts earlier in the week after Christopher Nolan confirmed that Lupita Nyong’o would play Helen of Troy in the film.
Musk amplified a tweet from conservative commentator Matt Walsh claiming that Nolan was “technically talented but a coward” for casting Nyong’o, and replied simply: “True.”
He also objected to the casting of Elliot Page, retweeting posts mocking the actor’s masculinity. Page is not playing Achilles despite rumors and backlash to those fake rumors.
Elon Musk has continued his crusade against The Odyssey and called out Christopher Nolan despite being misinformed on what he’s angry about
“Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award,” Musk tweeted.
“Who specifically is the a—— who added DEI lies to Academy Awards eligibility instead of it just being about making the best movie?” he added.
Musk’s argument — that Nolan’s diverse casting is driven by Oscar eligibility rules — doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, as his own Best Picture-winning film Oppenheimer had an almost entirely White cast and was still fully eligible for the Academy Awards under the same standards.
The Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards went into effect for films competing at the 2024 Oscars (i.e., films released in 2023 and eligible for the ceremony held in March 2024), so Oppenheimer was subject to the new rules — it just met them through other criteria besides casting, which is exactly the point.
A film doesn’t have to cast diversely to be eligible; it can satisfy the standards through crew composition, apprenticeship programs, audience development, and so on. Nevertheless, Musk has latched onto his talking point and is sticking to it.
Amazing pic.twitter.com/kfgSy25r3q
— Chris Lambert (@TheChrisLambert) May 15, 2026
Exactly https://t.co/wKuDhtZK1X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2026
There is hope, but there must be change https://t.co/PtCemX8usL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2026
Musk’s incessant complaining about The Odyssey prompted Alec Baldwin to respond on his Instagram account.
As we noted in our previous coverage, the complaints about Nyong’o’s casting aren’t rooted in legitimate artistic criticism but are merely racist dog-whistling dressed up in awards-season rhetoric. The Odyssey is mythology, not a documentary, and the ancient Mediterranean world it depicts was genuinely multiethnic.