Matt Damon's The Great Wall is streaming free on Tubi now
Matt Damon's 2016 fantasy epic The Great Wall is streaming free on Tubi in the United States this July, giving viewers a zero-cost look at the Zhang Yimou-directed flop before Damon plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which opens in theaters July 17. The Legendary Pictures release currently holds a 36% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Key Takeaways
- The Great Wall is available to stream free on Tubi in the U.S. as part of the July 2026 lineup.
- The 2016 film underperformed at the box office and earned mixed reviews, with a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score.
- Matt Damon stars as Odysseus in The Odyssey, filmed entirely on IMAX cameras at a reported $300 million budget.
- Nolan's latest Odyssey trailer has drawn unexpected YouTube backlash, with dislikes outpacing likes.
- Cast members describe new IMAX "blimp" camera tech that enabled intimate dialogue on the large format.
Why Is Matt Damon's The Great Wall Streaming for Free?
Tubi added The Great Wall to its July 2026 library, making the Matt Damon-led epic available at no cost to U.S. viewers. The free ad-supported streamer regularly rotates studio catalog titles, and this month’s slate puts Damon’s earlier ancient-world adventure within easy reach.
For fans tracking Damon ahead of The Odyssey, the timing creates an accidental double feature. You can stream the 2016 misfire at home, then catch his Odysseus turn on the big screen later this month. For more free streaming additions this month, see our Streaming & TV Alerts coverage.
What Went Wrong With The Great Wall?
Directed by Chinese filmmaking legend Zhang Yimou, The Great Wall was produced by Legendary Pictures during an era of large-scale monster movies. Damon starred alongside Pedro Pascal as European mercenaries defending an alternate-history Great Wall built to keep ancient creatures out of the Middle Kingdom. Willem Dafoe also appeared in the ensemble.
Critics were not kind. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists the film at 36%, with a consensus reading: "For a Yimou Zhang film featuring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe battling ancient monsters, The Great Wall is neither as exciting nor as entertainingly bonkers as one might hope." The movie underperformed at the box office.
Damon later reflected bluntly on the experience. Appearing on Marc Maron's podcast, he said, "I was like, this is exactly how disasters happen. It doesn't cohere. It doesn't work as a movie." He described powering through as the mark of a professional actor who knows they are in a turkey but keeps going.
How Does This Set Up Matt Damon's The Odyssey?
In just a few weeks, Damon will headline a very different kind of epic. He plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, a project Damon has called gratifying and possibly the last of its kind. Universal reportedly spent around $300 million on the production.
Unlike the CGI-heavy Great Wall, Nolan's film was shot entirely with IMAX cameras using practical effects and real locations. Damon told PetaPixel it felt "like making a movie the way you would have made it a hundred years ago. Except for the fact that it's on IMAX." He added, "The Odyssey is definitely the biggest movie that I've ever done in my career."
Why Is The Odyssey Trailer Getting YouTube Backlash?
Not everything surrounding Nolan's epic has landed smoothly. According to IMDb, the film's latest trailer has drawn unexpected YouTube backlash, with dislikes outpacing likes. That marks a sharp departure for a director whose previews typically generate strong positive engagement.
The online reaction arrives as Universal prepares to release the film on July 17. Whether the trailer controversy affects opening-weekend turnout remains to be seen, but the contrast with Damon's quietly resurfacing flop on Tubi highlights two very different chapters in his blockbuster career.
What Did the Cast Say About the IMAX Cameras?
The Odyssey is billed as a landmark in large-format filmmaking because every scene was captured on IMAX. Nolan told PetaPixel he had nursed a dream since age 16 to shoot an entire film that way, but sound had always been the obstacle.
Engineers solved that with a custom housing called the blimp, built to dampen camera noise. Nolan told Variety the system is "a game-changer" that lets crews shoot a foot from an actor's face during a whisper and still capture usable sound. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema said, "IMAX is a camera that doesn't lie."
Robert Pattinson joked the rig feels "like you're shooting a scene with like an SUV," yet moves faster than an iPhone. Co-star Himesh Patel summed it up simply: "This is pure cinema." Full details are in PetaPixel's report.