The Hail Mary Project trailer reveals how the film adapts a tricky aspect of the book

If you’re already sold on “Project Hail Mary,” I humbly suggest you go ahead and skip the (superb) new trailer for the film. Strange request for a trailer, I know, but part of the fun of reading Andy Weir’s source material is thinking you’re interested in “The Martian 2.0”, only to find out it’s actually about something else entirely.

For those just tuning in, “Project Hail Mary,” uh, comes from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind the “Jump Street” films, “The LEGO Movie” and the version of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” you’ve never seen (but, let’s be real, it was probably pretty good, based on these guys’ track records.) The trailer also refers to them as the “creators” of the “Spider-Verse” franchise, which seems a bit unfair. to the many other artists and directors responsible for bringing these groundbreaking animated “Spider-Man” films to life. These same animators also had to battle through incredible amounts of stress and overwork to make these films a reality, so you have to give them where credit is due.

To get back on track, Lord and Miller are undeniably talented storytellers. This also makes it the perfect choice to take on “Project Hail Mary”, which is essentially what you’d get if “Arrival”, “Interstellar” and “Lethal Weapon” had a baby. Indeed, as the film’s latest trailer confirms, it is more or less a buddy action comedy in which two beings from different planets must team up to save their respective worlds. We also now know how the film adaptation is going to handle one of the trickiest aspects of Weir’s source material: the way our heroes are able to communicate.

What would you do if you found yourself far from Earth on a desperate mission to save our little blue dot, and the only person you could turn to for help was speaking in… musical notes? That’s the dilemma our man Ryland Grace (a perfectly cast Ryan Gosling) finds himself in for the majority of “Project Hail Mary,” and that’s where his alien pal Rocky (James Ortiz) comes in. This also seems like a good place to mention that, unlike Rocky’s giant arachnid appearance, this movie is a far cry from the Adam Sandler-starring “Spaceman” (aka that other recent sci-fi movie about a far-from-Earth astronaut who bonds friendship with a human-sized, spider-type alien).

In the original book, Ryland quickly becomes fluent in Rocky’s melodic intonations (with Rocky learning English just as quickly), and the two men are able to converse with each other without any problems. However, based on the trailer, it appears that the movie version of “Project Hail Mary” will, at the very least, begin with Ryland using a computer screen to quickly translate what Rocky is saying, and vice versa (when the latter isn’t putting on “a little puppet show” for the former and his “little brain,” as Ryland cheekily puts it). Will the movie end up using subtitles for Rocky? I wouldn’t pass up screenwriter Drew Goddard, given his intelligent script work on the Ridley Scott-directed adaptation of “The Martian.”

“Project Hail Mary” will be released in theaters on March 20, 2026.