The Odyssey Exposes the Elliot Page Casting Controversy as Empty Culture-War Outrage

Elliot Page has a pretty small role in The Odyssey. What isn’t small is the controversy that has hounded Page since he was cast. Conservatives like Elon Musk, who called the casting “one of the dumbest and twisted things I’ve ever heard”, have been up in arms at the idea of a trans actor portraying a male character.

Elliot Page plays Sinon in The Odyssey. Sinon is a minor character in Greek mythology, who isn’t even in Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey. Rather, his story is told in Virgil’s Aeneid. Sinon’s main contribution to the plot is that he convinces the Trojans to bring the Trojan horse inside the city gates, allowing Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men to sack the city and win the war.

A close-up of a grimacing performer in dark armor, eyes half-closed and mouth open in apparent pain or exertion, in a dramatic scene from The Odyssey (2026).

Sinon is shown to be a brave, albeit small and inexperienced, warrior. In the movie, there was a draft lottery in Ithaca to raise an army for the Trojan war. Sinon is not selected through the lottery. However, the wealthy Antinous (Robert Pattinson) draws the black peg, meaning he has been selected. Antinous is terrified of war. Because his wealthy family employs Sinon’s father as a servant, he privately asks Sinon to take his place. In return, Antinous promises that his father will financially support Sinon’s family while Sinon is away fighting. Sinon accepts the deal out of loyalty to his family and because he believes it’s an honorable sacrifice.

Elliot Page at the New York premiere of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on July 14, 2026. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images.

Odysseus even helps Antinous out, by telling everyone that Antinous volunteered to stay behind for the good of Ithaca, rather than because he was a coward.

Sinon speaks to Odysseus in Hades in a scene from The Odyssey (2026).

However, after Sinon leaves, Antinous’s family does not honor their word to provide for his family. Sinon’s father falls into poverty and eventually dies as a homeless beggar while his son is still away at war. Sinon learns the truth only in death, which is why he gives Odysseus the black peg to bring back to Antinous, as a sign that he will one day face judgement for his broken promise. When Odysseus presents the black peg to Antinous, he pretends not to know what it is, but he will soon face Sinon in the afterlife in Hades.

Overall, Sinon in The Odyssey symbolizes the moral costs of the Trojan War. He haunts Odysseus as the embodiment of his guilt, urging him to make a sacrifice to honor his men he was unable to bury. At the end of the film we see Odysseus do just that, he leaves Ithaca on a new journey to make things right with his gods and the dead.

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