Elon Musk Attacks Lupita Nyong’o Casting in ‘The Odyssey’

The casting of Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” prompted immediate criticism from conservative commentators, who claimed the decision signaled the decline of Western civilization.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, joined the criticism. He began complaining in January when the role was rumored and continued after the casting was confirmed in a May 12 Time magazine interview with Nolan. Musk spent about a week posting on X, attacking Nyong’o and amplifying other critics. His arguments included claims of historical inaccuracy, that Nyong’o — named People’s “Most Beautiful Woman” in 2014 — was not sufficiently beautiful, and that casting a Black woman was part of a left-wing plot to undermine Western society.

The author wrote: “I will not massacre your brain cells by subjecting you to a blow-by-blow account of the world’s richest man’s most inane opinions on The Odyssey.”

As an example, Musk replied “true” to a post by conservative commentator Matt Walsh calling Nolan a “coward” for not giving the role to a white woman. Walsh said, “Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.'”

Musk also replied “true” to a post by a conservative X account C3, which said: “The destruction of the Odyssey by Nolan and the Left isn’t just about a movie. It’s about western Civilization. The Greeks were its foundation. From Democracy to Art to Philosophy to Culture. The Left wants to destroy western Civilization and everything that helped create it.”

The author responded: “Thanks for the hot take, C3, but kindly get a grip. This is actually just a movie about an imaginary woman featured in a poem written by a dead man.” Comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked: “If you really want to get into it, Helen of Troy was half bird. Helen was the daughter of Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan so he could mate with a human woman who then laid an egg and out hatched Helen of Troy … This is made up … So it makes no difference to anyone but crazy angry people what color she was.”

Despite managing multiple companies, legal issues, and many children, Musk has focused heavily on racial topics. He has said white people are “a rapidly dying minority.” A Guardian analysis found that on 26 out of 31 days in January, Musk posted about the white race being under threat, made allusions to race science, or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content.

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told the Guardian after reviewing Musk’s posts: “If you stripped Elon Musk’s name off of these [posts] and showed them to me, I would think that this was a white supremacist.”

The author wrote: “I am not going to explicitly call Musk a white supremacist. But I will call him a very sad and bitter man who cannot seem to achieve contentment.” Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2021 and bought Twitter (now X) for $44 billion in 2022, reportedly assembling a team of engineers to boost his posts’ visibility.

Musk spent more than $290 million supporting Donald Trump and other Republicans in the 2024 election. His net worth rose from about $270 billion in October 2024 to approximately $800 billion, and he may become the world’s first trillionaire, the author noted.

According to a Washington Post analysis, Musk’s most frequent interaction on X in 2026 has been with an anonymous account called “XFreeze,” which appears to have ties to India and frequently praises him.

Joan Donovan, assistant professor at Boston University, told the Post: “Musk loves to be glazed, and this person is the doughnut factory.”

The author concluded: “Musk has all those children he could be hanging out with, and here he is posting about celebrities not being white enough for him, and engaging in an online bromance with an obsequious anonymous account. He may love to be glazed, but clearly nothing is going to fill that gaping hole in his soul.”

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist.