Elon Musk AI Odyssey plan gets roasted by Colman Domingo on Kimmel
Colman Domingo mocked Elon Musk’s Grok-made Odyssey plan after Musk criticized Christopher Nolan’s casting choices.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
Colman Domingo used a guest-host turn on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to take aim at the Elon Musk AI Odyssey plan, mocking the tech mogul’s promise to create a Grok-generated movie based on Homer’s epic.
Variety reported that Domingo devoted much of his Wednesday night opening monologue to Musk, who has said his AI tool Grok will make a full-length version of “The Odyssey” before the end of the year. Musk described the planned film as “historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
Domingo’s response was blunt. “By historically accurate, he means whiter than Christmas at Cracker Barrel,” he joked on the ABC late-night show.
The actor also tied Musk’s AI movie pledge to the billionaire’s public objections to casting in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey.” Domingo said Musk and his supporters were “upset over the diversity casting” of Nolan’s film, according to Variety.
What did Elon Musk say about an AI Odyssey movie?
According to Variety, Musk said Grok would produce a full-length “Odyssey” movie before the end of the year. He also shared a three-minute AI-generated scene based on the poem, which Variety said was made by a Grok user.
“The Odyssey” is Homer’s ancient Greek epic about Odysseus and his long journey home after the Trojan War. Domingo pointed to the obvious complication in Musk’s “historically accurate” framing, saying, “You can’t make a historically accurate version of something that is totally made the fuck up.”
Musk’s criticism of Nolan’s version has centered on what he has called “woke” casting, Variety reported. In March, Musk wrote that Nolan was “an anti-White racist” over the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, and he also wrote that Nolan had “lost his integrity” and called the casting an “insult” to Homer.
Nyong’o’s casting has become one of the flashpoints in the fight around Nolan’s film, according to Variety’s account of Musk’s comments. Nolan has not been quoted in Variety’s report responding to Musk’s remarks.
Who else has criticized Musk over The Odyssey?
Domingo is not the only Hollywood figure to push back. Variety reported that Scott Derrickson, the director of “Doctor Strange,” addressed Musk directly on X earlier this week.
Derrickson wrote, “Clearly @elonmusk doesn’t know shit about cinema & he stopped reading in his 20s,” according to Variety.
The latest exchange puts Musk’s AI ambitions and Hollywood’s casting fights in the same arena. For now, the concrete pieces are Musk’s Grok promise, the short AI clip he shared, and a very public late-night roasting from Domingo.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.