The fates of the various 2027 Academy Awards contenders inarguably shifted with the release of Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey. After Oppenheimer won seven Oscars, the most powerful director in Hollywood delivered an adaptation of one of western civilization’s oldest myths that’s become an all-new box office sensation. Oscar voters were always going to be closely watching Nolan’s follow-up to his dominating 2023 awards player, but he’s made the argument for repeat consideration even more undeniable.
How The Odyssey will ultimately shape the awards conversation has yet to be fully revealed, though. The film is a well-reviewed technical marvel, but with fall film festival season coming up in a few short weeks, there’s simply too much of the year that still has to play out before we start handing over Oscars to Nolan.
There is at least one category, however, that’s worth checking in on in The Odyssey‘s wake.
When we last examined 2026’s Best Original Song contenders thus far, few tunes could really compete with Taylor Swift‘s track from Toy Story 5, “I Knew It, I Knew You.” That tune rose to the top of the field based solely on the profile of its creator, who is nearly peerless when it comes to popularity in the current world of pop music. Given that, it would take an enormous song — or an even bigger personality — to move voters off of an automatic name recognition vote.
But then The Odyssey launched and, with it, a potential Swift-slaying contender. Viewers who stay through the closing credits will be treated to “When I’m Home,” performed by the trio of James Blake, Travis Scott (who has a small role in the film as a Grecian bard), and Ludwig Göransson. Those three artists also co-wrote the track along with the aid of first-time songwriter named… Christopher Nolan. If “When I’m Home” makes the Best Original Song cut, it would be Nolan’s first-ever nomination in that category, and another potential statuette to add to his shelf.
With all the previous caveats about the rest of the year still in place, Oscar history tells us that a movie like The Odyssey will be a major player come next year. In terms of the scale of the storytelling and the scope of the production, the most recent Oscars parallel would be Peter Jackson’s trilogy-capping The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — and we all know how that worked out.
Return of the King was such an achievement that it resulted in a clean sweep at the 2024 Oscar ceremony — still the largest in Academy Awards history. And Best Original Song was among the movie’s many wins, with the Howard Shore-Annie Lennox collab, “Into the West,” taking home that year’s statuette.
As things stand now, The Odyssey may be poised to elicit a similar voting pattern down the ballot from members. If they do the “pick The Odyssey for everything” approach, “When I’m Home” will get a boost that will be hard to beat.
On the other hand, “I Knew It, I Knew You” has demonstrated staying power on the charts that could point to larger penetration in the zeitgeist than its association with a hit movie. The song debuted at number one and currently sits at number two, six weeks after entering the Hot 100.
So who wins: the world’s biggest pop star or Hollywood’s most powerful director? One thing’s for sure: a head-to-head match-up between Taylor Swift and Christopher Nolan would certainly be a clash of the titans.
