While Christopher Nolan‘s fantasy epic The Odyssey just started smashing box office records in its first weekend in theaters, moviegoers are already asking what could be next for the legendary director. Dating back to his near-perfect superhero movie The Dark Knight, every Nolan film has become a global cinematic event, and thus far he has not disappointed audiences. The Odyssey is on pace to shatter Nolan’s personal record at the box office, which was previously held by his historical biopic Oppenheimer, and it has just as good a chance to chase down Oppenheimer during awards season as well.
Part of Nolan’s stellar reputation is born out of his ability to produce mind-bending, visually spectacular movies across a wide array of mediums. The Odyssey is a through-and-through Mediterranean fantasy epic, while Oppenheimer captures the tension and aesthetic of the 1940s and 1950s in America, both of which are strikingly different from the sci-fi space epic Interstellar. Nolan has never put himself in any sort of genre box, and as a result, each new project announcement carries an air of mystery. We’ve combed through nearly 30 years of Nolan’s work and his interviews to make a speculative list of what projects Nolan might tackle next.
7
A True Horror Movie
Nolan has explicitly expressed interest in directing a horror film.
While he’s teased at scary sequences before The Odyssey, there are several scenes in his most recent masterpiece that are outright horror scenes. Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus proves that Nolan is capable of making a monster both terrifying and fascinating, while the crew’s stop at Circe’s island depicts some of the best body horror moments you’ll find. There are other moments scattered throughout his collected works, specifically related to psychological and existential horror.
Nolan recently told Empire that he’s always been interested in doing an outright horror movie, but thus far has faced a simple roadblock. Nolan believes there are very few truly great horror movies, and the ones that are great are based on an “undeniable” story. So far, Nolan notes that he simply hasn’t found the right horror story to resonate with him. Whenever he does, his ability to toy with the human psyche will undoubtedly lead to an all-time excellent horror entry.
6
A Western
Western archetypes are prevalent in Nolan’s films.
In 2023, Nolan introduced the 1953 Western classic Shane ahead of a special lecture at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. It’s easy to see how much influence Shane and other classic Westerns have had on Nolan’s career, especially from a character standpoint. Nolan’s protagonists are almost always morally conflicted, a hallmark of the anti-hero gunslingers and outlaws of the Old West. It’s easy to find the obsessive mania of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards from The Searchers (1956) in The Prestige‘s Robert Angier, or Alan Ladd’s reluctant reformed gunslinger Shane from the aforementioned classic in Oppenheimer‘s J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Nolan’s visual style, including his affinity for IMAX cameras, sweeping cinematography, and practical effects also lends itself to a Western aesthetic. You can tell how much he played with the concept in Oppenheimer, with the temporary town in New Mexico and Oppenheimer’s Western-style flat-brim porkpie hat clearly meant to evoke an Old Western frontier town and its sheriff. A Western in Nolan’s hands is almost too obvious, and would undoubtedly result in a unique contribution to the genre’s current rebirth.
5
A Crime Epic
Nolan’s affinity for Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ is well-known.
Christopher Nolan has made it clear multiple times in public how much he loves Michael Mann’s crime epic Heat (which now has a sequel in the works), and those with a discerning eye will note just how much the opening to The Dark Knight pays homage to it (right down to the inclusion of William Fichtner, who stars in Heat). As exhilarating as Nolan’s work in sci-fi and fantasy is, seeing him do a dark and gritty crime movie would be revelatory for the genre. Especially on the heels of a sweeping, challenging epic with a massive scope that reportedly left Nolan “exhausted”, it would make sense that he’d take a step back in scale for his next movie.
4
An Action Comedy
Nolan and his brother penned an action comedy script years ago.
Christopher Nolan told Variety in 2023 that one of his favorite movies, or at least one he watches every time it’s on, is the Will Ferrell NASCAR spoof Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. If you’re shocked by that choice, don’t be, as it turns out Nolan and his brother Jonathan actually penned a prospective action comedy script decades ago during their development of the noir psychological thriller Memento. Virtually nothing is known about the unproduced, untitled spec script, but once again it could be a viable option for Nolan to turn to after the daunting demand of The Odyssey. We’ll file this one away as perhaps the most unlikely option on the list, but we refuse to ever rule anything out with Nolan if it sparks his passion.
3
A James Bond Movie
Nolan was in talks to direct an entry at one point.
It’s already been announced that Denis Villeneuve will helm the next James Bond movie for Amazon MGM Studios, which is due to release in 2028 as his next movie after Dune: Part Three. However, per Newsweek Christopher Nolan was at one point in talks to direct the entry, with Amazon MGM even willing to give him final cut (a rarity for the studio). Nolan’s interest in the spy thriller genre has always been apparent, as Inception and Tenet both use elements that would be perfect fits in the Bond universe. He won’t be involved in the 26th Bond film, but considering the world’s most famous secret agent isn’t going anywhere, Nolan could tackle the 27th.
2
A Remake of ‘The Prisoner’
Nolan has had a long-standing interest in the cult-classic 60s sci-fi show.
All the way back in 2009, Christopher Nolan was attached to a film remake of the cult classic 1960s British sci-fi show The Prisoner, which stars a British intelligence agent (recognized only as “Number Six”) trapped against his will on a mysterious village. There are psychological thriller and spy elements to go along with the sci-fi twists, and Nolan’s talents are certainly perfectly suited to a story like that. However, he reportedly “couldn’t crack” the script to the point where he felt it would land with a modern audience, and moved on from the project. Nolan could certainly revisit this project next, especially now that Bond 26 is in the hands of Denis Villeneuve.
1
A Remake of ‘The Keys to the Street’
Nolan has already written an adaptation of the dark crime-thriller.
Christopher Nolan actually wrote an adaptation of British author Ruth Rendell’s dark 1996 crime novel The Keys to the Street early in his career. The story revolves around a woman who finds herself entangled in a string of serial murders after leaving an abusive boyfriend for a mysterious stranger whose life she saved via a bone marrow donation. Nolan eventually abandoned the project after deciding it was too similar to the noir psychological thrillers he had just made in Memento and Insomnia, and opted to take on Batman Begins instead. Again thinking about him working on a smaller scale after The Odyssey, The Keys to the Street would make a ton of sense for Nolan and a smaller cast of his frequent collaborators (looking at you, Anne Hathaway).
- Release Date
-
July 17, 2026
- Runtime
-
172 Minutes
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
