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Leave it to Ryan Gosling to steal the spotlight with a laugh—even when he’s playing an astronaut trying to save Earth. The Barbie and The Fall Guy star was in peak charming-and-hilarious mode as he premiered the trailer for his upcoming film Project Hail Mary at CinemaCon, and let’s just say: the ‘Kenergy’ might be gone, but the comedy chops are still fully charged.
Directed by the dynamic duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street), the sci-fi flick is based on Andy Weir’s bestselling novel of the same name (yep, the guy who wrote The Martian). Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who gets reluctantly drafted into a do-or-die space mission. Basically, he’s a regular dude turned unexpected hero—and he’s really not thrilled about it.
While introducing the trailer, Gosling couldn’t resist poking fun at his own character. “The astronauts die in space? Who is gonna sign up for that?” he joked to the crowd. He followed it up with a classic one-liner: “I put the ‘not’ in astronaut. I’ve never done a spacewalk—I can’t even moonwalk.” (Somewhere, Neil Armstrong is giggling.)
He also shared that the audience at Amazon MGM Studios’ presentation were the first to see the trailer… after his mom, of course. (Priorities!)
The trailer, set to the emotional pull of Harry Styles’ Sign of the Times, opens with Gosling teaching a bunch of students before he’s approached by Sandra Hüller’s character, Eva Stratt, who drops the bombshell: Earth is in deep trouble and it’s going to take a solo cosmic mission to fix it.
Even though Project Hail Mary is backed by a streaming giant, Gosling made it clear that this one’s designed for the big screen. “We tried playing it on a TV… it didn’t even fit,” he quipped, confirming the studio’s full-blown theatrical ambitions.
Mike Hopkins, the head honcho at Amazon and MGM Studios, joined him on stage and backed that up—this is their first time at CinemaCon, and they’re here to make a splash.
Oh, and did we mention Gosling’s also producing the film? He’s teamed up with Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor, and even the author himself, Andy Weir.
Project Hail Mary is officially blasting off into theaters on March 20, 2026—so mark your calendars, space nerds and Ryan Gosling stans alike.