Colman Domingo Roasts Elon Musk Over The Odyssey

When it comes to Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, some folks have apparently decided that Greek mythology needs a diversity police force. And leading the charge is, unsurprisingly, Elon Musk.

While guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo took direct aim at the billionaire’s latest culture war obsession: Christopher Nolan casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.

Musk has spent months attacking the film because he believes the casting isn’t “historically accurate”—despite the fact that The Odyssey is a nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem filled with gods, monsters, witches and one-eyed giants.

“By historically accurate, he means whiter than Christmas at Cracker Barrel,” Domingo joked, according to Variety. “Of course, this is all because Elon and his Musketeers are upset over the diversity casting of The Odyssey,”

Domingo didn’t stop there. Responding to Musk’s promise that his AI chatbot, Grok, would produce a “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer” version of the story before the end of the year, the actor delivered the line of the night.

“And I don’t want to get technical here,” Domingo quipped, “but you can’t make a historically accurate version of something that is totally made the f-ck up.”

Musk recently shared a three-minute AI-generated clip inspired by Homer’s poem and vowed to create a full-length version through Grok, framing it as an antidote to what he sees as Hollywood’s embrace of “woke” casting.

Domingo isn’t the only filmmaker laughing at Musk’s latest fixation. Earlier this week, Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson fired back on X, writing, “Clearly @elonmusk doesn’t know shit about cinema & he stopped reading in his 20s.”

Musk’s attacks on Nolan’s film date back to March, when he accused the Oscar-winning director of being an “anti-White racist” for casting Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. He also claimed Nolan had “lost his integrity” and called the casting an “insult” to Homer.

The irony, of course, is that the loudest complaints about historical accuracy are aimed at a story where the gods routinely intervene in human affairs and the hero spends years fighting mythical creatures. But apparently cyclopes are believable. A Black Helen of Troy? That’s where some people draw the line.

See social media’s reaction to the roasting below.