Alien Friendship Takes Center Stage in Project Hail Mary Trailer

It was hard not to love The Martian, the snarky, suspenseful, but also oddly moving adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2011 bestseller. Matt Damon in the lead role, Ridley Scott at the helm, and an underlying commitment to the novel’s often-comedic focus on science and survival saw the project become a critical, commercial, and award-winning hit. For many fans of Weir’s works and science fiction movies in general, then, the idea of a sequel of sorts (directed by Weir himself, back to back with Weir writing the screenplay) was both tantalizing and welcome.

So, when it was announced that Weir would be working on a sequel to his debut novel, to be titled Project Hail Mary, and that Matt Damon would be replaced with the no-less-charismatic Ryan Gosling, interest was piqued. Now, the first trailer has arrived and, from start to finish, it not only hints at a winning combination of science, survival, and silliness but also establishes Project Hail Mary as a big-budget, big-concept space-adventure blockbuster with all the potential to become another award-contending success.

The studio, Amazon MGM Studios, was on board with the project from nearly the beginning, buying the film rights to Project Hail Mary even before Weir had finished the novel. Drew Goddard (yes, the Spider-Man one) was confirmed to adapt the screenplay early on as well, and fans of his Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Weir’s previous novel, The Martian, will not be surprised to see him back. The choice of directors is more left-field, however, with the former directorial duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller taking the helm in place of Weir.

That Lord and Miller are more known for their comedies, most notably Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie, may initially seem an odd choice for a “hard” science fiction adaptation. However, their track record in blending humor and heart into compelling stories may be just what Project Hail Mary needs to strike that same balance.

Ryland Grace is played by Gosling in the lead role. A seemingly mild-mannered middle school science teacher, he is jolted awake on board a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. From the moment the trailer starts, there is a sense of panic and urgency about the film; Grace, too, is confused. As the situation sinks in, however, it becomes evident that Grace is many light-years away from home and his former life, in a flash of clashing color. A montage of brief flashbacks shows Grace back on Earth, in his home, trim and clean-shaven, explaining a concept to his student, before getting approached for a mission.

A mission to save the planet. From extinction. From space.

The problem? The Sun is going out. The problem is not just with the Sun, either, as multiple nearby stars are dimming to half of their former brightness, with one lone exception. Scientists are baffled, and have their suspicions, but suspect that something from outside of our solar system (some kind of star-sized comet or celestial body) may be to blame. As a former molecular biologist, Grace might be able to discover the truth of what’s going on.

Problems one and two, however, are that Grace, an astrophysicist by training and a teacher by trade, is neither thrilled at the prospect nor excited about the prospect of becoming an astronaut, for what seems like the umpteenth time in his life. “I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” he says at one point, and then jokes, “I can’t even moonwalk!” In short, it doesn’t matter to Eva Stratt, a high-level official played by Sandra Hüller. Her pitch is direct and harsh: “If you don’t go, you die with the rest of us. If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct.” Grace gets the point; without his students, and everyone on Earth (including his students) to boot, the offer is one he can’t refuse.

After some brisk training to get used to space travel, Grace is launched on his journey and—some time later—quickly wakes up on the ship, albeit with temporary amnesia. Grace soon discovers that he is alone on the ship. The rest of the crew have died on their way out or back; details about the casting of Milana Vayntrub as Olesya Ilyukhina, one of the other crew members who are now deceased, hint at where. Grace’s loneliness, however, is not to last.

Grace’s journey of thousands of light years, as the trailer shows, brings him face-to-face (or paw-to-fins?) with another spaceship. But it also brings him into contact with a wholly new life form, an entirely new species of plant-animal being from another planet. The creature, Rocky, is not the kind of alien most audiences would be familiar with. Friendly, curious, and eager to learn, Rocky is not bent on conquering the world or eating our protagonist. “He’s kinda growing on me,” he records in one scene, “At least he’s not growing in me, you know?” Grace, it would seem, can be relied on to make the universe just a bit smaller and more familiar than it was before, even when it comes to teaching another species how to do the thumbs-up.

Space-Opera Humor for a Science-Fiction Blockbuster

If the balance of humor, dread, and warmth of The Martian is an indication of how Lord and Miller (with Weir’s source material and Gosling’s familiar and understated style) are handling Project Hail Mary, then the project is looking to be a massive sci-fi success in the making.

Its March 20, 2026, release date is a ways away, which should give interested viewers time either to avoid spoilers entirely (if so desired) or to read the book beforehand. Project Hail Mary will likely come to be one of the most highly anticipated science fiction projects of the decade, regardless, with a compelling blend of mystery, survival, and odd new friendship.