Christopher Nolan on Casting Travis Scott in

When Travis Scott popped up in The Odysse y trailer , some wondered how he ended up notching a role in the highly anticipated film. Fans now have an answer to that after director Christopher Nolan spoke to Time on Tuesday (May 12).

Nolan, who previously collaborated with Scott to have a song in 2020’s Tenet , explained that the move to cast La Flame was based on the film’s story being handed down as “oral poetry,” which he saw as being “analogous to rap.”

“I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” he said.

Scott plays a bard in Nolan’s film, which arrives in U.S. theaters on July 17, and finds the rapper alongside a star-studded cast that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron.

It’s Nolan’s most expensive film to date, with a reported budget of $250 million . The Odyssey was shot exclusively on IMAX’s 70 mm cameras, which also marks another first for the decorated filmmaker.

The Oscar-winning director and Scott have a tight working friendship after Nolan recruited the Houston native to craft “The Plan” to close his 2020 sci-fi film, Tenet .

Nolan told GQ in 2020 that Scott “became the final piece of a yearlong puzzle. His insights into the musical and narrative mechanism [composer] Ludwig Göransson and I were building were immediate, insightful, and profound.”

Nolan credited Ludwig Göransson for wanting to get Scott involved in Tenet , who the director said was “great to work with” and revealed La Flame was one of the first people to watch the film outside of his team.

Their friendship grew when Scott posted a handwritten note from the filmmaker in 2020, who raved about his “Franchise” music video.

“Love the video (shot on film, no less!),” Nolan wrote at the time. “I can’t wait to hear it on the IMAX speakers, and see those sheep stampede across the giant screen as part of a Travis/ Tenet /Travis Sandwich! Great work.”

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/christopher-nolan-cast-travis-scott-the-odyssey-explains-why-1236245392/)._