who does zendaya play in the odyssey

Zendaya is reported to be playing the Greek goddess Athena in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film adaptation of The Odyssey , though this was kept secret for a while and only more recently confirmed in entertainment coverage and fan news.

Quick Scoop: Zendaya in The Odyssey

Most recent reports and features on Nolan’s The Odyssey name Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war who guides Odysseus and his family throughout the epic. Earlier in 2025 there was a lot of speculation that she might instead be playing Nausicaa, a Phaeacian princess who helps Odysseus after a shipwreck, based on set photos showing her in a white dress similar to traditional depictions of that character.

Why Athena Matters

• Athena is Odysseus’ divine protector, intervening repeatedly to push his journey home forward and to support his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.

• In many adaptations she can appear in disguise, which gives a director like Nolan room to play with how often the audience “sees” her directly versus through other forms.

Ongoing Fan Discussion

• For much of 2025, film forums and social media threads were split between “Team Athena” and “Team Nausicaa” because the studio kept roles under wraps and only set photos and costume details were available.

• Even now, some discussion posts still reference Nausicaa theories, but mainstream entertainment outlets and fan archives largely describe Zendaya as Athena in Nolan’s version of The Odyssey.

TL;DR: Zendaya plays Athena, the goddess who watches over Odysseus, in Nolan’s The Odyssey , after months of online guessing that she might instead be Nausicaa.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.