The big holiday releases are still waiting in the wings, but it’s not too soon to look forward to what’s coming in 2026. Amazon MGM Studios has released a new trailer for its forthcoming space odyssey Project Hail Mary, which is based on Andy Weir’s (The Martian) bestselling 2021 novel about an amnesiac biologist-turned-schoolteacher in space.
Weir told The New York Times that the inspiration for his novel came from a planned multi-book space opera called Zhek that he began writing after The Martian, about a potential fuel for interstellar travel. He eventually abandoned that effort and wrote the 2017 novel, Artemis, instead, but aspects of Zhek found their way into the Project Hail Mary novel.
As we’ve previously reported, Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights for Weir’s novel before it was even published and brought on Drew Goddard to write the screenplay. (Goddard also wrote the adapted screenplay for The Martian, so he’s an excellent choice.) The studio tapped Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie) to direct and signed on Ryan Gosling to star. Per the official premise:
