Jimmy Fallon is turning Studio 6B into something of a late-night Trojan horse next week.
NBC announced that The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will devote the week of July 13 to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, welcoming a parade of cast members from the filmmaker’s new mythic action epic in the days leading up to the film’s July 17 theatrical release.
The week kicks off Monday, July 13 with Tom Holland, who plays Telemachus, followed by Matt Damon—Nolan’s Odysseus—on Tuesday, July 14. Zendaya, who plays Athena, is booked for Wednesday, July 15, while Lupita Nyong’o, appearing in the film as both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, will close out the week Thursday, July 16.
The Homeric rollout won’t end there. NBC says additional Odyssey-adjacent bookings are set for the following week, including rapper and producer Travis Scott on Tuesday, July 21; John Leguizamo on Wednesday, July 22; and Nolan himself on Thursday, July 23.
It’s a notably concentrated late-night push for one of the summer’s biggest films, but not an entirely unfamiliar play for Tonight.Fallon’s show has shown a willingness to go all-in on hotly anticipated pop-culture events rather than simply book the star of the day and move on. Last November, The Tonight Show staged a monthlong countdown tied to the final episodes of Stranger Things, turning the Netflix phenomenon into a recurring on-air event.
Nolan’s The Odyssey marks the director’s follow-up to Oppenheimer, the Oscar-winning blockbuster that reestablished his particular brand of brainy spectacle as a full-on box office event. The new film brings together an ensemble that also includes Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, Jon Bernthal, Samantha Morton, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, and Elliot Page.
For Fallon, the week gives Tonight another chance to build programming around a shared fandom moment, with enough star wattage to make Studio 6B feel less like a talk-show stop and more like the Ithaca leg of a global press tour.
The Odyssey opens in theaters Friday, July 17.
