Nolan Re-Teams With Elliot Page: Here Are 5 Actors Who Have Been In Multiple Nolan Movies

We have more casting news for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Joining an already elite group is Elliot Page, Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, and Bill Irwin.

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Fans of Nolan’s movies may recognize three of those names. Page had played Ariadne in Inception. Patel was Mahir in Tenet. And Bill Irwin voiced TARS in Interstellar.

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Samantha Morton is a first-time Nolan collaborator. That list for Odyssey includes Charlize Theron, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o, and John Leguizamo. All of them will become eligible to join the club of actors who have worked with Nolan multiple times.

Let’s take a look at the five actors who have worked with Nolan the most, outside the Batman trilogy.

5 Anne Hathaway & Robert Pattinson

Co-Pilot, Time Traveler, To Be Determined

The Odyssey will be Hathaway’s second (non-Batman) film with Nolan, having previously played Dr. Amelia Brand in Interstellar. While Brand didn’t get to do all that much in the sci-fi epic, she is an important emotional foil to Matthew McConaughey’s character.

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Robert Pattinson starred in Tenet, in a supporting role that finally won over many of the people who had continued to judge him for being the pretty, shiny vampire in the Twilight saga. Those in the know had long-recognized Pattinson’s talent and star power.

Both have joined The Odyssey, but in undisclosed roles. Screen Rant speculated that Hathaway could be Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. They pegged Pattinson as Antinous, an antagonist who pursues Penelope during Odysseus’s long absence.

4 Matt Damon

Loner, Enabler, To Be Determined

Matt Damon is also part of The Odyssey. He seems the obvious choice to play Odysseus, as Holland, Pattinson, and others would be too young for the role of the middle-aged hero.

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Interstellar was Damon’s first collaboration with Nolan. The result was amazing, as Nolan used Damon’s penchant for playing audience-favorite protagonists to set up a shocking twist.

And then Damon played a major role in Oppenheimer, as U.S. Army Colonel Leslie Groves, the man in charge of the Manhattan Project, the one who brought Oppenheimer on to lead development of the atomic bomb.

3 Kenneth Branagh

Commander, Futurist, Scientist

Two of Branagh’s three Nolan films have been in understated roles. In Dunkirk, he plays Commander Bolton, a composite character inspired by Captain William Tennan. He has a few memorable moments, but isn’t the main character.

It’s the same in Oppenheimer, as Branagh plays Niels Bohr. Bohr’s an important figure but not a meaningful part of the film.

In Tenet, however, he was Andrei Sator, arguably the biggest jerk (putting it mildly) in Nolan’s entire filmography and the scariest Branagh has ever been on-screen.

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2 Cillian Murphy

Dreamer, Coward, Destroyer of Worlds

Cillian Murphy doesn’t seem to have a role in The Odyssey (maybe because he’s committed to the third film in the 28 Years Later trilogy?). But he’s one of the most memorable actors in Nolan’s filmography.

In Inception, he got to play Robert Fischer, the business titan with daddy-issues whose dreams the heroes invade. I’ll never forget that moment, at the end, after the inception, where Murphy has to nonchalantly convey he just had an emotional breakthrough that has changed his entire worldview. And he nails it!

But then, in Dunkirk, Murphy loses his nobility to play an emotionally broken soldier whose rising cowardice turns him into a villain.

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Murphy and Nolan re-teamed for the high-point of their careers. Murphy played Oppenheimer and won the Academy Award for Best Actor, while Nolan took him Best Director, and the film won Best Picture.

1 Michael Caine

Engineer, Mentor, Poetry Reciter, Vocal Cameo, Sir Michael

Oh, Michael Caine. The legend himself. He has appeared in more Christopher Nolan movies than anyone else, whether you include the Batman movies or not.

First, he played the engineering assistant in The Prestige, and got to explain the three parts of a magic trick: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Nolan was quick to notice that letting Michael Caine narrate and give big speeches coincided with audiences loving the movie. It worked in The Prestige, they ran it back in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Returns, Interstellar, and Dunkirk.

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As much as I love all of Michael Caine’s appearances, my favorite is Tenet. Why? Because Caine’s character is literally called Sir Michael. Which opens up the possibility that Michael Caine was just playing himself. It’s a brief, Bond-like scene, where the spy gets important information from a sharp, witty character, and they banter back and forth. And nothing that’s said in any way goes against the theory that Michael Caine is playing Michael Caine and that Michael Caine, knighted as he is, plays a key role in British intelligence operations.

Sure, the character is officially named Sir Michael Crosby, but doesn’t the name being “Crosby” only strengthen the idea that it’s really “Caine”?

The Odyssey

Release Date July 17, 2026

Director Christopher Nolan

Cast

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Matt Damon

Tom Holland

Robert Pattinson

Anne Hathaway

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