Amazon MGM Unveils First Trailer for Project Hail Mary

It’s been six years since audiences last got to see The Martian, the wildly successful, clever, and endearingly dorky adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestselling debut novel. Matt Damon and Ridley Scott helmed the critically acclaimed, high-grossing, award-nominated version, so when Weir’s next book got the green light as a film, anticipation was at a fever pitch. The new project is an adaptation of Weir’s 2021 bestseller Project Hail Mary, and the first look at the film is just as inviting as audiences hoped it would be.

The official first trailer for Project Hail Mary is here, and there’s a lot to take in. Right off the bat, we get all the hallmarks of the kind of science, suspense, and sarcasm that made The Martian such a success. It’s a big budget, big concept, genre-busting space epic with Ryan Gosling in the lead, Drew Goddard penning the script, and directing gurus Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at the helm, so naturally it’s not going to be a shoestring operation. It was something of an early endeavor, with Amazon MGM Studios nabbing the rights before the novel’s publication. It was the same team that acquired rights to The Martian back in 2013, and the studio kept hold of Goddard for the screenplay.

Goddard will be no stranger to fans of The Martian, as he was responsible for that novel’s clever and faithful screenplay, which garnered an Oscar nomination. Weir, Goddard, and the directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller form a formidable crew of talent for bringing Project Hail Mary to the big screen, but at first, the pair behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie might seem like an odd choice to lead the film. Are two comedy aces a good fit for a book that’s so very much hard science fiction?

The Martian proved that Goddard could balance the science with a charming humanity, so maybe that partnership will find the right recipe for success with Project Hail Mary, as well. We know that Gosling is playing the part of Ryland Grace, a low-key middle school science teacher, when we first meet him. In the trailer, he wakes up alone on board a spaceship and has no recollection of how he got there. His confusion turns to panic as the realization of his situation sinks in.

He’s several light years from Earth, on a ship with no signs of other life and no memory of his past. A series of flashbacks gives context to his predicament and shows a clean-shaven and even gayer Grace in his classroom, still a middle school teacher. He’s finishing up when he’s approached by a recruiter for a mission that could very well determine the future of humanity.

Turns out the sun is dying, and so are other nearby stars, except for one. No one knows why it’s dimming, but a theory of a weird space phenomenon has been tossed around. Grace’s background as a molecular biologist is the key to potentially solving the mystery. The problem, according to Grace, is that he doesn’t want any part of space travel. “I put the 'not' in astronaut,” he deadpans in the trailer. “I can’t even moonwalk!”

At least he’s not in denial, but his doubts don’t seem to faze Eva Stratt, a high-level official played by Sandra Hüller, who just straight up asks him to be her first choice for the mission. Her offer is a no-brainer for Grace, who at this point has no idea he’s lost all his memories, so it’s a simple proposition. “If you don’t go, you die with the rest of us. If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct,” she says in a quick scene from the trailer. “I’m not going to lie, the only reason I’m asking you is because you’re the best.”

Grace can’t argue with logic like that, and after a “surprisingly quick” boot camp in spacewalking, the old Grace is blasting off into space. He’s in good spirits, at least at first. In what appears to be a quick montage of events before the film jumps ahead to the beginning of the story, we get to see Grace rocket into space before the camera jumps ahead to when he’s woken up on board. A surprise note from a recruiter tells us that the rest of the crew perished on the way out, and Grace appears to have full amnesia. Casting notes have since revealed that one of the dead members of the cast is Milana Vayntrub, who will play Olesya Ilyukhina, a Russian colleague who died in transit.

Project Hail Mary: A Space Adventure with a Sense of Humor

The teaser trailer for Project Hail Mary shows that it will be a high-tension, breathless adventure with humor and humanity woven throughout, just like The Martian was six years ago. With the elements we’ve seen in this trailer, the likable Gosling, Weir’s talent for making high-concept science fiction feel human, and the skill and storytelling flair of Lord and Miller behind the scenes, Project Hail Mary could be a standout among 2020s science fiction blockbusters.

The film’s release date is set for March 20, 2026, so there’s plenty of time to avoid spoilers if that’s your goal, or plow through Weir’s novel if you want to be ready when the film comes out. Either way, Project Hail Mary is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated science fiction films of the decade, so make sure to follow for updates. We’ll have to wait and see if it measures up to the book, but based on the first look we got, this is a mission well worth tracking.