Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary Gets a Big-Screen Adaptation

In 2015, people around the world fell in love with The Martian, the dramatic, hilarious, and weirdly touching big-screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestselling first novel. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon in the title role, The Martian was a critical darling, a box office success, and a surprise awards contender. So when it was announced that Weir was back with another book (2021’s Project Hail Mary), and a film adaptation was in the works, sci-fi fans everywhere had reason to get excited.

On Friday, Amazon MGM Studios released the first official trailer for the film, which so far looks like it will match The Martian’s success. From start to finish, it features the same blend of mad science, extreme survival, and unscripted humor. Billed as a major motion picture of big ideas and bigger budgets, the space epic has a lot going for it. Not only does it have Ryan Gosling in the lead role, but Drew Goddard is adapting the screenplay, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are bringing it to the screen. Weir’s most recent novel is a major new project for Amazon MGM Studios, too, which has taken an interest in the film since before the book had even been published.

Amazon MGM purchased the rights to the film early on and secured Goddard’s involvement as screenwriter. For those familiar with The Martian, this is both exciting and unsurprising. Goddard’s previous screenplay, for the Ridley Scott-directed adaptation of Weir’s debut novel, is one of the most faithful and smartest science fiction adaptations of recent years. It’s one of the best periods. His work on The Martian earned him an Oscar nomination, so bringing him back to work on Project Hail Mary seems like a no-brainer.

Equally, the choice of directors might initially seem surprising. While Lord and Miller have made a name for themselves as comic geniuses—Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse—their work has always had a heart as well as a sense of humor. Could the directing duo be a perfect fit for this story? Only time will tell, but there’s a lot to be said for putting fun first in any job posting.

In the film, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a soft-spoken middle school science teacher. He awakens on a spaceship, and by the end of the first minute of the trailer, it’s clear that the scenario is not as it first appears. The character quickly discovers he has no memory and that he is light-years away from home. Grace’s flashbacks help fill in the details of his former life, with a clean-shaven Gosling shown teaching classes and doing normal, human things.

He is interrupted in one scene by a strange figure who asks him point-blank if he will take on a mission of the utmost importance to save the Earth from extinction. While Grace is a molecular biologist by trade, he is less than enthused by the prospect of working as a space scientist. “I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” he deadpans at one point in the trailer. “I can’t even moonwalk!”

His tormenter is Dr. Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller, who is unapologetically straightforward with him. “If you don’t go, you die with the rest of us. If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct,” she tells him. Stratt’s threat is twofold, and when Grace realizes the students he teaches are the only other people he would lose if he says no, he reluctantly agrees to join the mission.

He goes through a crash course in spaceship training before being launched on the interstellar journey, but by the time he wakes up on the vessel, he has temporary amnesia. He also has no crew. The trailer makes it clear that the rest of the crew are dead. Gosling’s only company is a deceased Russian colleague named Olesya Ilyukhina, played by Milana Vayntrub.

It’s not long before he finds a potential companion, too. Grace stumbles across another ship and, ultimately, a new form of life. It’s not at all what audiences expect, however. The alien, which Grace calls Rocky, is not a threat. He is completely unlike any lifeform seen on the plane, —and while he is making himself at home on the spaceship, Grace finds him friendly.

“I guess we’re crewmates now,” Grace says in a video communication. “He’s kinda growing on me. At least he’s not growing in me, you know?” The first image of the alien is mesmerizing and, as the rest of the trailer suggests, the interstellar bond the two strike is touching. The pair part ways at one point, but not before Rocky has a grasp on the human thumbs-up.

A Space Adventure That Promises Laughs and Tears

The trailer for Project Hail Mary thus far suggests that the movie will be as successful as its predecessor. A combination of personal drama, mystery, and space actio,n which delivers on laughter and tears, Project Hail Mary appears to strike a great balance between humor and drama. Gosling is charming as ever, and Weir has a great track record for creating smart, scientifically rigorous stories with charming and relatable characters at the center.

Add in the comedic genius of directors Lord and Miller, and Project Hail Mary already looks like a huge new release. Fans have plenty of time to either steer clear of potential spoilers or re-read the book before the 2026 release date. With the right blend of cosmic menace, world-threatening science, mystery, and (likely) emotional payoff, it’s shaping up to be one of the decade’s most hyped sci-fi movies. Whether or not the movie will match up with the book is impossible to tell at this stage. But if the first official trailer is anything to go by, it’s certainly one to watch.