What role does Tom Holland play in The Odyssey (2026)?

Tom Holland plays Telemachus in The Odyssey (2026). Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and his coming-of-age story runs alongside his father’s long journey home from the Trojan War.

In Homer’s epic, Telemachus grows up in Ithaca while Odysseus is absent. Suitors have taken over the palace, consuming the household’s wealth and pressuring Penelope to choose a new husband. With help from the goddess Athena, Telemachus sets out to learn what happened to his father and begins asserting his authority.

The character is more than a supporting member of Odysseus’s family. The opening books of the poem are sometimes called the “Telemachy” because they follow his search for news of Odysseus and his development from an uncertain young man into someone capable of defending his household. His eventual reunion with Odysseus becomes one of the story’s emotional and strategic turning points.

Holland’s role also connects the film’s central family trio: Matt Damon plays Odysseus, while Anne Hathaway plays Penelope. The distractor names belong to other figures associated with the epic or the film’s cast: Eurylochus is one of Odysseus’s companions, Menelaus is a Greek king, and Antinous is one of Penelope’s suitors.