Sandra Hüller Joins Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary

We first met Mark Watney in 2015, when Ridley Scott released his The Martian, the simultaneously tense, funny, and weirdly moving adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestselling debut novel. The result earned big praise and box office returns for all involved. A few years ago, Weir announced he had a new book in the works, one he had been writing for a while. Project Hail Mary was published last year to even better sales, and once again, the film rights were acquired well in advance. Weir’s fans, and all those who enjoyed the clever balance of dry humor and hard science from The Martian, have reason to be optimistic.

This morning, the first official trailer for Project Hail Mary arrived. It packs a hell of a lot into two minutes, but certain aspects of the new movie look similar to the earlier one. The sci-fi/science blend has big laughs and big ideas on screen, as it did in The Martian. From the early moments to the trailer’s last few scenes, there’s no doubt that this is a project with the pedigree and funding for a $100 million-plus space adventure. Ryan Gosling is in the lead, Drew Goddard has scriptwriting duties, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are on board as the directors.

The studio optioned the rights to Weir’s novel in advance of its release, and early on, they signed Goddard to the adaptation of the project. If you remember the earlier The Martian, that name will be familiar. Goddard got an Oscar nomination for his intelligent and faithful work on the earlier adaptation. It made sense for MGM to return to Goddard for the project. Lord and Miller were a less obvious fit, at least to start. The two directors, who first made a name for themselves with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, have specialized in blending humor and pathos since. They are known for The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and a host of animated movies. Their track records for making smart films that infuse emotional heart into big-budget action might be just what Weir needs.

Meet Ryland Grace. Played by Gosling, Grace is a mild-mannered, middle school science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship with no idea how he got there. The first few shots of the trailer show Grace waking up. He is confused and panicking. “Where the fuck am I?” he asks, more than once. He soon realizes he’s several light-years away from home, which is a far cry from the rented apartment in the American suburbs he woke up in just moments ago. The trailer then flashes back to Earth and to his students. Grace (now clean-shaven) is a hit with his class. He even seems to be dating the one they’ve all had a crush on, but that changes when the military comes calling. He is quickly approached about a new mission.

The Sun, it turns out, is dying. That’s not an issue for humanity, it’s an issue for a whole slew of star systems, including our own. In the immediate neighborhood, several stars are dimming, and they all seem to have a point in space that’s suffering the effects. The exception to the rule is a mystery, and Grace’s former colleagues at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have a sense it’s an alien of some description. Grace was a molecular biologist before their current job, and they think their skills may be the key to understanding the new threat.

Grace is, unsurprisingly, not that keen on the idea. “I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” he quips at one point. “I can’t even moonwalk!” This is where Sandra Hüller’s Eva Stratt comes in, though. She is in charge of the new team that’s been formed to investigate, and she’s not impressed. She lays out the stakes in blunt terms. “If you don’t go, you die with the rest of us,” she says. “If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct.” Confronted with the survival of his students and all of Earth’s population, Grace accepts the offer.

Rapid-fire training, and he’s off, blasting into the depths of space. The moment he wakes up aboard the ship, however, it’s clear something has gone wrong. As per the first teaser, the rest of the team is dead. One name that appears in the credits and next to Grace’s as a big role is for Milana Vayntrub, as Olesya Ilyukhina, who we can assume has also been lost along the way. Ilyukhina was Russian, by the way, so the character has been lost, not played by Gosling in some accents he picked up over a decade ago.

The feeling of isolation doesn’t last. Grace is soon in contact with another spacecraft and another lifeform. Rocky, as he is later named, is the most alien character in the film, but one of the most endearing, too. “Oh yeah, so this is a hostile alien race,” Grace remarks at one point. “He’s kinda growing on me,” he admits in a voice memo. “At least he’s not growing in me, you know?” There’s even a shot of Grace teaching Rocky the power of the thumbs up.

The film will likely follow its predecessor and balance some hard science with broader family themes, along with space and humor. Will Hail Mary have the same impact as The Martian? The combination of Goddard and Lord and Miller, Gosling’s recent turn as the dancing astronaut in LEO, and a storyline that has several interesting twists at its core should make for a fine watch. The March 20, 2026, release date is also set, so the only remaining question is whether you avoid spoilers or seek out Weir’s novel ahead of the movie.