Project Hail Mary author isn't worried about spoiling a major plot reveal in the new trailer for Ryan Gosling's upcoming sci-fi movie: "This is not a Darth Vader is Luke's father kind of situation"

Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir isn't too worried about that 'spoiler' in the newest trailer for the upcoming adaptation of his hit sci-fi novel.

"It's really more a marketing decision by Amazon MGM, but 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. 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 core element in question is that cute little alien that Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace befriends in the trailer. Ryland happens upon Rocky in Weir's 2021 novel, but this detail was kept as a surprise, rather than used in the marketing materials for the book's release. Weir is pretty confident in not only his own story, but in the screenplay adapted by Drew Goddard – who also adapted the screenplay for The Martian, based on Weir's 2011 hit sci-fi book.

Continued Weir: "All trailers are designed to put butts in seats, and we want those butts in those seats. We want people to go, 'Now I want to know what's going on.'"

The upcoming film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, stars Gosling as a middle school teacher who just so happens to have a doctorate in molecular biology and becomes the reluctant member of a crew who is tasked with figuring out why the sun is dying.

Project Hail Mary is set to hit theaters on March 20, 2026. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025, or, check out our list of movie release dates.