Project Hail Mary Cast & Character Guide (Everyone Starring in the New Ryan Gosling Sci-fi Film)

This week sees the release of Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi film from Ryan Gosling that’s already being hailed as a masterpiece and one of the best films of the year. As of this writing, the new film from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller is sitting at 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the second-highest-rated film from the directors (behind The LEGO Movie) and the highest-rated film of Gosling’s career (above Drive, La La Land, and The Nice Guys). The hype around Project Hail Mary has been building for weeks, and now it’s finally playing in theaters internationally, opening in the US tomorrow.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary is a science fiction story that goes heavy on the science and maintains a distinct level of realism across its storytelling. Like Weir’s previous work that was brought to the big screen, the film’s scientific accuracy is only one component, as the film also features an ensemble cast that appears throughout the story. Though there aren’t quite as many familiar faces in Project Hail Mary as in The Martian, there are still enough to make audiences wonder, “Wait, where have I seen that person before?”

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Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling)

Academy Award-nominee Ryan Gosling takes center stage in Project Hail Mary as Dr. Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher (who, yes, has a PHD) who is thrust into a wild scientific world. After a new organism, dubbed Astrophage, is discovered to be feeding on the electromagnetic radiation of the sun, a process that will eventually render Earth inhospitable, the nations of the Earth come together to solve the problem. In the pages of the Project Hail Mary book, Grace is brought in to test the first Astrophage samples thanks to a paper he wrote in college. Eventually, his work with the Project Hail Mary team gets him a ticket on the ship, sending him across the galaxy for more answers. He’s a funn

Gosling’s career goes back decades, meaning audiences may know him from any number of films. Recently, though, he appeared in The Fall Guy and Barbie, and will make his way to a galaxy far, far away in next summer’s Star Wars: Starfighter.

Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller)

The person who recruits Grace for his position at the Hail Mary project, and believes in him thanks to his awkward style of thinking, is Eva Stratt. Given vast powers in order to assemble the scientific teams that she needs to solve the Astrophage problem, Stratt is as no-nonsense as they come, but manages to find moments of levity as she and Grace become closer. Stratt is played in the film by German actress Sandra Hüller. Audiences have seen her quite recently in two much more dramatic but equally acclaimed films, both Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.

Carl (Lionel Boyce)

A smaller part in the larger narrative, Carl is initially seen as something of a babysitter for Grace when he’s brought in to work for Stratt. That said, Grace’s wry sense of humor eventually wins over Carl as one of his pals. Fans of the original Project Hail Mary book may recall him very briefly from the text. Audiences will no doubt recognize Carl in the film as Lionel Boyce as Officer Carl, best known for playing Marcus Brooks in the Emmy-winning FX series, The Bear.

Yáo Li-Jie (Ken Leung), Olesya Ilyukhina (Milana Vayntrub), and DuBois (Malachi Kirby)

In the Project Hail Mary book, one of Grace’s responsibilities becomes teaching the crew of the Hail Mary about Astrophage, largely due to being one of the only experts on the relatively recent discovery on the entire planet. This means he spends a lot of time with the astronauts, specifically the primary and backup science officers. The main crew for the Hail Mary includes: Yáo Li-Jie, the commander of the ship from the Chinese space program; Olesya Ilyukhina, the Russian member of the crew; and Martin DuBois, the American member of the crew (and its designated science officer)

In the Project Hail Mary film, Yáo Li-Jie is played by Ken Leung, known for appearing in Industry, Lost, and Old. Olesya Ilyukhina is played by Milana Vayntrub, known for being the main AT&T spokesperson in the 2010s as well as voicing Marvel’s Squirrel Girl in multiple projects. DuBois is played by Malachi Kirby in the film, known for playing Kunta Kinte in the new version of Roots from 2016, as well as Black Mirror, Doctor Who, and A Thousand Blows.

Narender (Aaron Neil) and Shapiro (Liz Kingsman)

In the Project Hail Mary book, Shapiro is the backup science officer for the Hail Mary crew, while Narender is a brand-new character for the film and does not appear in the book. It’s unclear what his role is beyond being a member of the Hail Mary crew. In the film, Shapiro is played by Liz Kingsman, an Australian who recently appeared in F1: The Movie. Narender is played by Aaron Neil, who recently starred in the Apple TV series Down Cemetery Road and previously appeared in Paddington 2.

Rocky (James Ortiz)

Though Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ryland Grace is central to the film, his most frequent scene partner across the entire film is a small rock-like alien, whom he affectionately names Rocky. Hailing from the planet Erid, in the 40 Eridani star system, some 16 light-years away from our own solar system, Rocky is a small rock-like creature with five appendages and no sense of sight, experiencing the world around him through sound (not unlike the Marvel hero, Daredevil).

In the film, Rocky is voiced by puppeteer and performer James Ortiz, who makes his feature film debut with Project Hail Mary. Those with a predilection for live theater may have seen Ortiz’s work on the stage, though, having previously designed puppets for productions of Into the Woods and The Skin of Our Teeth. Ortiz also wrote and directed a play titled The Woodsman, about the backstory of The Tin-Man from The Wizard of Oz, including a life-size puppet of the title character on stage.