Project Hail Mary’s newly revealed footage was greeted with huge laughter during the Amazon MGM Studios feature’s San Diego Comic-Con panel.
Ryan Gosling, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, author Andy Weir and screenwriter Drew Goddard debuted various clips from the first third of the sci-fi movie that hits theaters March 20, 2026. Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a middle school teacher who finds himself in outer space and tasked with saving humanity.
Early in the presentation, the film’s team revealed its first five minutes. The footage opens with Gosling as he awakens on an apparent spaceship with a substantial beard and deals with robot assistants. The clip was met with laughter at various moments as Gosling wordlessly gets his bearings. Finally, he exclaims “Where am I?” before staring out into a window overlooking outer space.
From the stage, Gosling cracked that his character was wearing a “placenta onesie” that he hopes to see Comic-Con attendees wearing as cosplay next year.
Later, another sequence screened showed co-star Sandra Hüller’s character interacting with Gosling before his interstellar journey, as she pushes him to experiment on an alien cell, and more big laughs ensued. “Am I expendable? Is that why you want me?” asks a concerned Gosling in the footage. Hüller replies, “Thats not the only reason.”
While feeling the pressure of being watched by a team of scientists, Gosling’s character says, “It took 200 years to figure out how bacteria work.” But Hüller remains unfazed: “Please do it faster.”
A later, more dramatic scene shows Gosling grappling with zero-gravity during his journey through space and making a startling realization.
“I connected to his reluctance,” Gosling told the crowd. “He’s quite an ordinary person.”
The filmmakers said they were proud to finally get to work with the star. “We wanted to do something with Ryan for a long time,” Miller said. “This was the most rewarding collaboration of our careers.” Lord had a humorous way of assessing the film’s message: “It answers the question, ‘If the universe depends on it, can adult men make friends?’”
The team noted that the movie found a way to blend humor with more emotional moments. “As people, our lives are dramatic and our lives are comedic every single day,” said Goddard. And Miller concurred: “Things are funnier if it comes from real emotion.”
Weir praised Gosling for bringing unexpected dimension to how the character was conceived on the page. “Seeing Ryan give so many layers to this character I made up, I was like, ‘Wow, this character is really cool,’” the author joked.
Discussion turned to Rocky, the alien that Gosling meets on his journey, with Miller saying that team was convinced that viewers would still find ways to connect with the creature, even though it “doesn’t have eyes or a mouth or a face.” Miller added, “You would die for this character.”
Weir quipped about how Rocky compared to other of Gosling’s previous co-stars: “From Emma Stone to person of stone.”
Lord and Miller directed the film that hits theaters March 20, 2026. Hüller and Milana Vayntrub also star in the feature that adapts author Weir’s novel of the same name.
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