Derived from the 2021 hard sci-fi novel by New York Times bestselling author Andy Weir (“The Martian,” “Artemis”), Amazon MGM Studios has just launched the initial trailer for “Project Hail Mary”, which will be a long strange trip back into outer space for its intrepid luminary lead Ryan Gosling.
This is the same thrilling preview first revealed to audiences at April’s CinemaCon, and now it’s being delivered to the rest of the world ahead of the film’s scheduled release date of March 20, 2026.
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The Lego Movie,” “The Spider-Verse Franchise”) and adapted by ace screenwriter Drew Goddard, “Project Hail Mary” is fortified with a solid cast that also includes Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Milana Vayntrub (“This Is Us,” “Werewolves Within”), Bastian Antonio Fuentes (“Jurblockic World Dominion”), Isla McRae (“The Christmas Quest”), and James Wright (“How to Train A Princess”). Goddard also tackled the screen adaptation of “The Martian,” which was helmed by Sir Ridley Scott.
Project Hail Mary finds Gosling portraying middle-school science teacher and reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace, who awakens aboard the spaceship Hail Mary light years away from Earth with no memories of his mission or who he is. As clarity begins to return, he figures out that he’s the lone survivor of an interstellar journey to the Tau Ceti system to discover the strange substance that’s slowly diminishing our sun’s shining light. En route, Grace employs his scientific expertise and ingenious creativity while an uncanny friendship develops with an extraterrestrial being to aid his longshot plight.
“So I met an alien,” Gosling jokes in the rousing new trailer. “He’s kind of growing on me. At least he’s not growing IN me. Which was a concern for a little while.”
If you think you’re having déjà vu seeing Gosling dressed in a spacesuit again amongst the stars, you’re not wrong. The Oscar-nominated star played famed moonwalker Neil Armstrong in 2021’s “First Man,” and he seems right at home back amid the cosmos in another major space flick.
Sharp fans of sci-fi fare will notice some slight similarities to the narrative of Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” in the sun-saving plot of Weir’s original novel and this subsequent screen adaptation. The book itself goes super heavy on the astrophysics for tech geeks, much like the “science the s**t out of it” approach in “The Martian.”
“Project Hail Mary” also brings to mind the 2024 Netflix sci-fi film “Spaceman,” in which a lone astronaut on a solo odyssey encounters an alien creature while on a deep space mission. That film, directed by Emmy-winning Johan Renck, starred Adam Sandler and the vocal talents of Paul Dano as the creepy extraterrestrial spider.
“Project Hail Mary” lands in theaters on March 20, 2026.
