Christopher Nolan has been on fire lately. First, he made a mind-bending movie about time travel that I didn’t understand, but thought was great. Then, he turned his attention to a sad, smug historical figure I’d never heard of, resulting in a cinema classic. Now, he’s adapting The Odyssey, one of the oldest stories in existence, which has me incredibly excited as it’s one of my favorite books I’ve never read.

This July, an epic of…epic…proportions is set to hit theaters and I’ll be first in line. Having never really engaged with the source material, I’m looking forward to seeing The Odyssey with fresh eyes. It’ll be almost as if I’ve never read it because I’ve never read it. Through context clues, I have deduced a handful of things that I expect to take place in the film, including a character going on an odyssey—which I fully expect to be longer than a journey. Through vague recollections of my high school English class, I’m also mildly certain that this character’s name is Odysseus. Armed with two key pieces of information and a trailer that I didn’t really understand, I’ve pre-purchased my tickets and am losing sleep with excitement.

While I know there have been complaints online about the casting of major roles, as someone who knows nothing about any of the characters in The Odyssey, I think they nailed it. Based on memories that I have of my English teacher, Mr. Ricketts, describing Odysseus at 7:45 A.M. in 2003, Matt Damon seems like a solid fit. As per Penelope, I don’t know who she is, so Anne Hathaway makes a lot of sense. Telemachus? Tele-me-more about this guy, Tom Holland! The die has been cast, as has the film, and this group is certain to fulfill the promises of the original text—promises of which I am completely unaware.

I’m quite excited to see how they depict some of the scenes that my classmates talked about over 20 years ago. I remember hearing something about a cyclops, so if one doesn’t show up in the film, Mr. Nolan will have one unhappy moviegoer! The same goes for walking. I remember there being quite a bit of time spent on foot. So much so that I failed a test on The Odyssey because I kept steering essay questions back to all the blisters Odysseus must have had. All of that is to say, if there is no walking in The Odyssey, I’ll be disappointed.

The sirens are the only part of the book I remember truly locking in on as a young man. After hearing about them in class all those years ago, I actually did go back and read that part because it sounded interesting. If Nolan’s The Odyssey is 100% sirens or told through the eyes of a siren, I’ll deem it a success. Maybe it doesn’t have to be fully about sirens, but they should factor in a great deal. If not, us fans of the book will feel a bit let down. After all, we have been waiting hundreds of years, possibly even longer, for a faithful adaptation.

High expectations are always the enemy of enjoyment. Unfortunately, with The Odyssey being one of the most well-known stories of all time—not necessarily by me but by others—it’s going to be hard to temper those expectations. Ultimately, I just want a filmic version that captures the spirit of the original story. If it doesn’t, I— and millions like me who have never read the book but take some weird ownership of it—will be pretty upset. And we’ll make our frustrations known for the foreseeable future, or until Greta Gerwig’s new Narnia film releases next year and the cycle starts anew.