The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan reveals why the characters speak with American accents

The Odyssey is arguably one of the most-anticipated cinematic releases of the year so far.

Hitting cinemas on Friday (17 July), the Christopher Nolan-directed action-fantasy boasts a star-studded cast including the likes of Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Elliot Page, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth and Lupita Nyong'o.

Based on Homer's ancient Greek poem of the same name, the epic follows King Odysseus (Damon) on a 10-year journey to return home to his wife Penelope (Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Holland) in Ithaca following his exploits in the Trojan War. Check out the official trailer here:

Despite being based on a piece of work composed and passed down through oral traditions before being written down around the 8th or 7th century BCE, all the actors speak with an American accent and even use overtly modern language, with Holland's Telemachus referring to Damon’s character, Odysseus, as 'Dad' instead of 'Father' in the trailer.

Interstellar mastermind Nolan has since explained the reason behind his choice to have the cast speak in such an accent.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, he outlined that this was to make sure the story remained approachable for modern audiences.

The Odyssey boasts a star-studded cast including Matt Damon and Zendaya (Universal Pictures)

"When you read the poem, it's very earthy and accessible," Nolan said.

"So, what I wanted to do with this film was really take a modern audience and throw them into a very relatable world, an exotic world, a world that they've hopefully never seen before in film."

He continued: "But I wanted them to connect with the emotional life of the characters, and so I did not want to fall into the trap of sort of reproducing the kind of Hollywood of the 1950s or '60s, a lot of which was based on the kind of romantic art and so forth that it reinterpreted Greek myths and the classical world."

Nolan concluded: "We wanted to try and be a little fresher than that, [a] little more immediate and accessible."

The Odyssey hits cinemas this Friday (Universal Pictures)

He added in a separate interview with The Los Angeles Times that he was keen to find 'language that has emotional, not intellectual meaning to people,' opting for more contemporary accents and dialogue over something theatrical.

"I was maybe being naïve; it might bite me on the ass, but I wanted an earthy narrative," the cinematic icon explained. "To me it was a no-brainer."

The Odyssey will be available to watch in selected cinemas from Friday (17 July).