{"id":544504,"date":"2026-03-25T14:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/544504\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:38:10","slug":"andy-weir-says-project-hail-mary-improved-on-the-book-in-one-very-specific-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/544504\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Weir Says ‘Project Hail Mary’ Improved on the Book in One Very Specific Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project Hail Mary<\/a> was a best-selling book by Andy Weir<\/a> before it became a blockbuster movie<\/a>. And Weir, who\u2019s no stranger to seeing his work adapted (see 2015\u2019s The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon), knew that some changes would be made<\/a> in the transition from page to screen. But there was one tweak in particular made by scripter Drew Goddard and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that Weir thought actually improved on his own story.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

Speaking to Polygon<\/a>, Weir explained it has to do with why Ryan Gosling\u2019s character, Ryland Grace, ends up on the Hail Mary in the first place. In the book, it\u2019s because Ryland has a rare gene that enables him to be \u201cresistant to long-term comas.\u201d In other words, he\u2019s an ideal candidate for an extended space voyage. He becomes the guy when the other scientists who fit the bill are killed in an accident while preparing for the launch.<\/p>\n

The movie, however, does away with the rare gene subplot. Instead, it\u2019s Ryland\u2019s specific knowledge and brainpower (and the fact that he\u2019s, you know, the last one alive after the accident kills the scientists he was training, with no time to replace them) that lands him the gig. It also helps that he\u2019s a solitary guy without any family that he\u2019d want to return to Earth for.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween Drew and the directors, they came up with a way to have Ryland be on the ship without having that coma gene, which is why he ended up being the last-minute replacement,\u201d Weir told Polygon.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrew found a way to have that all happen, to have the [same] immediacy without having to resort to this little made-up side science that I had to come up with for the book. It always felt a little contrived to me in the book, and I\u2019m glad that they found a way to do it without that in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Project Hail Mary was a best-selling book by Andy Weir before it became a blockbuster movie. And Weir,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[241825,88,155909],"class_list":["post-544504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-andy-weir","tag-entertainment","tag-project-hail-mary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}