For almost 20 years, it was impossible to separate a Christopher Nolan film from its producers at Warner Bros. The studio had backed almost every Nolan project, from Insomnia in 2002 to Tenet in 2020, but their collaboration fell apart after Warner Bros. launched “Project Popcorn.” Its maligned pandemic-era streaming strategy put movies in theaters and on streaming platforms simultaneously, limiting their box office staying power and annoying the directors who’d made the films.
Since then, Nolan has turned to Universal Pictures, and their first outing, Oppenheimer, proved to be a winning combination. The 2023 film is one of the highest-grossing biopics of all time, and it earned Nolan his first-ever Academy Awards. Clearly, Universal knows it’s got a good thing going with the director, as the studio has already signed on to produce Nolan’s latest film.
There’s not much known about Nolan’s new project just yet, but Universal is reportedly eyeing a summer 2026 release date. If all goes to plan, the film will reunite Nolan with Matt Damon, marking their third collaboration. This could also be Damon’s first time as the lead in a Nolan film, a choice that parallels Nolan’s own relationship with Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy. In that sense, a new creative partnership could be taking shape.
Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy have been collaborators for decades, but it wasn’t until Oppenheimer that Murphy played a starring role for him. That wasn’t for lack of trying; Nolan screen-tested Murphy for the role of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, before casting Christian Bale and using Murphy as Scarecrow. Murphy later played supporting roles in 2010’s Inception and 2017’s Dunkirk, slowly but surely becoming Nolan’s most reliable actor. Their decades-spanning partnership seemed to culminate with Oppenheimer, which earned Murphy the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Nolan’s partnership with Damon isn’t quite as wide-ranging, but there are a few similarities to the director’s relationship with Murphy. In 2014, Nolan used Damon for a secret, uncredited cameo in Interstellar. He played Dr. Mann, an astronaut marooned on an inhabitable alien planet, in a brief but weighty appearance. Their second collaboration came with Oppenheimer, where Damon was one of the more notable actors supporting Cillian Murphy’s lead performance.
Damon has always been able to do a lot with a little, so it’ll be interesting to see how he approaches a larger role in the Nolan-verse. Whether the upcoming film can match Oppenheimer’s heights remains to be seen, but Nolan has always chosen his stories and talent well, so it seems safe to assume the film will be in good hands.
