has the full breakdown of Project Hail Mary below.

The original Project Hail Mary book follows Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who is forced to become an astronaut to save life on Earth from a sun-dimming event. Scientists discover that an ice age will happen over the next 30 years if they don’t find a way to replenish the Sun. After Ryland wakes up far away from Earth, he meets an alien in the Tau Ceti system, and they work together to save their home planets from extinction.

Weir’s novel directly inspired the film, and screenwriter previously adapted Weir’s other novel The Martian into the hit movie of the same name starring .

In April 2025, Amazon MGM Studios showed footage from Project Hail Mary, and Ryan teased that the film is an “insanely ambitious story, massive in scope.”

In the trailer, viewers meet Ryland Grace (Gosling), who wakes up from a coma in space nearly 12 light years away from Earth. He recalls being recruited by a group of scientists, who inform him that the “sun is dying” and life on earth is in grave danger unless he goes on this mission.

Though he insists he’s not an astronaut, the middle school science teacher with a doctorate in molecular biology goes to space to hopefully save humanity from extinction. And while up there, Ryland meets an alien, whom he affectionately names Rocky.

The trailer, which was released on June 30, 2025, is synced to ‘ hit single “Sign of the Times.”

Since we’re about a year away from the film’s release, the exact differences between the book and the screen adaptation aren’t obvious yet. But as everyone knows, movie adaptations tend to exclude some details from their books in order to fit into a 2-hour time frame.

The Project Hail Mary movie will be released in theaters on March 20, 2026.

Ryan not only leads the film, but he also serves as a producer. The rest of the small cast in Project Hail Mary features and Ken Leung.