Ryan Gosling's “Project Hail Mary” Trailer Gives Away Major Book Spoiler — With Author Andy Weir's Blessing: 'Put Butts in Seats'
- - Ryan Gosling's “Project Hail Mary” Trailer Gives Away Major Book Spoiler — With Author Andy Weir's Blessing: 'Put Butts in Seats'
Rachel RaposasNovember 19, 2025 at 11:16 PM
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Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary -
Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and a producer on the film adaptation, is defending the film's choice to include Rocky in the promotional materials
Rocky, an alien that collaborates with Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace on a space mission, was a surprise to readers — but Weir said he didn't necessarily want that effect in theaters
"The idea was no one's going to walk into that theater and not know about Rocky,” Weir told Polygon. “This is not a 'Darth Vader is Luke's father' kind of situation."
The trailer for Project Hail Mary is courting some controversy after it revealed a major twist from the book — but author Andy Weir is defending the choice.
Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling as science teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace, is based on Weir's 2021 novel of the same name. While readers discovered the surprise existence of Rocky — the intelligent alien that Grace manages to contact — a bit more than 100 pages into the book, viewers were simply given that information in the trailer, which debuted June 30.
Weir, who serves as a producer on the adaptation, told Polygon that the decision to reveal Rocky was a long, thought-out discussion. Ultimately, it came down to providing clarity on the book's central elements.
"The idea was no one's going to walk into that theater and not know about Rocky,” Weir said. “This is not a 'Darth Vader is Luke's father' kind of situation. This is a core, central element of the plot that everybody's going to be talking about and that everybody who's read the book already knows about.”
The movie's first trailer met Grace on a mission to learn why the sun and other stars are dying, and to possibly discover the single star in the universe that was apparently unaffected in an attempt to help humanity survive. In the final seconds of the trailer, Grace met Rocky — though all viewers learn about the being is that he's an alien, and he can't make a thumbs-up gesture.
The newest trailer, which was released Nov. 18, revealed Rocky is a "genius engineer" who collaborates with Grace on his mission to save the stars.
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A still from 'Project Hail Mary'
While some of the element of surprise is diminished in the on-screen version, Weir told Polygon that Rocky's presence in the promotional materials was essential to letting viewers know what kind of film Project Hail Mary will be.
“All trailers are designed to put butts in seats, and we want those butts in those seats,” Weir says. “We want people to go, 'now I want to know what's going on.'”
Project Hail Mary is set to debut March 20, 2026.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
