Entertainment
Ryan Gosling’s Stellar New Sci-Fi Movie Makes Me VERY Excited About His Star Wars
Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling delivers a knockout, career-best performance in the modern sci-fi masterpiece, Project Hail Mary. What’s equally exciting about Project Hail Mary is that the movie serves as the perfect precursor and appetizer for Gosling’s next performance, as he stars in a new live-action theatrical Star Wars movie. Based on Gosling’s work in an imaginative, yet very scientifically grounded sci-fi feature, we can’t wait to see what he does in next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter, as Gosling’s performance as Ryland Grace proves that he’s more than up to the task of playing a compelling interstellar adventurer!
A Key Relationship in ‘Project Hail Mary’ Looks Directly Inspired by ‘Star Wars’
A sizable chunk of Project Hail Mary focuses on the relationship between Ryland Grace (Gosling) and his fellow scientist and explorer, an Eridian alien whom Grace nicknames Rocky (James Ortiz). Despite their differing backgrounds, Grace and Rocky form a tear-jerking, heartfelt, and emotional relationship, where they literally risk life and limb for one another. It’s the true heart and emotional core of the movie, and it’s directly inspired by relationships typically found in beloved Star Wars media. A movie like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back captured moviegoers’ collective imaginations through its depiction of the relationship between Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and the elderly Jedi master, Yoda (Frank Oz). It’s irrelevant that Yoda is a puppet. Oz brings that character to life onscreen, and Hamill sells the relationship between Luke and Yoda, making the characters and their relationship into something tangible and “real” for the audience.
Gosling and Ortiz do the same thing with Grace and Rocky. They bring those characters and their relationship to vivid life onscreen, and the audience believes it. Their chemistry enthralls viewers’ collective imaginations just like Luke and Yoda. Project Hail Mary, through the dynamic bond that Grace and Rocky form over the course of the story, restores a childlike innocence and imagination to cinema that Star Wars similarly inspired in moviegoers for decades.
Grace’s Hero’s Journey Is Taken Right Out of the ‘Star Wars’ Playbook
Although Grace starts the movie as a molecular biologist-turned-science-teacher, he’s forced to become a reluctant astronaut with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. That unique take on the hero’s journey comes right out of the Star Wars playbook. A mild-mannered and unassuming individual must reluctantly follow the path of heroism and save a literal planet. Technically, it’s not just Earth’s civilization at stake in Project Hail Mary, but Rocky’s home planet, Erid, as well. Through Gosling’s Grace, taking on the role of a reluctant would-be hero, viewers can find parallels to a character like the scoundrel pilot Han Solo in Star Wars, whose swagger hides a genuine heart of gold. Although Grace doesn’t have the persona of a dashing rogue, he finds himself in a position where he must become an unwitting hero, much like Solo.
Project Hail Mary once again proves Gosling’s versatility as an actor. He consistently delivers amazing work in more intimate, lower-budget thriller dramas like Drive, or he can portray a more comedic performance like Ken in the Barbie movie. However, based on Gosling’s performance as Grace, a character who finds himself isolated and alone on a high-risk mission in outer space, he must become the mission’s unwitting engineer and pilot to save planet Earth. Grace taking the pilot’s chair in Project Hail Mary provides some amazing moments, so we can’t wait to see what Gosling does as his pilot character in Starfighter.
‘Project Hail Mary’ Features Moments Reminiscent of ‘Star Wars’
Project Hail Mary also features some nail-biting and riveting action-packed moments set in space that certainly whet the appetite for Star Wars: Starfighter. There’s an incredibly suspenseful sequence where Grace must go on a daring space walk that puts us on the very edge of our seats. It felt reminiscent of some of the best and most suspenseful moments in movies like Star Wars, such as when characters have to race out of an exploding space station in Return of the Jedi or The Phantom Menace. Gosling always makes sure to bring an emotional connection to all of these scenes, so the audience is always dialed in to the fate and peril the characters experience.
That’s something that good scenes should always bring to the table, and the action in Project Hail Mary came off like a throwback to the Lucasfilm and Amblin Entertainment movies of yore. Gosling consistently imbues the action beats with his movie star presence, charm, and charisma, but he never loses sight of the plot’s stakes or his character’s emotional arc. Based on how well he performs in the big action and space moments in Project Hail Mary, he will undoubtedly portray a cool, compelling, and believable pilot character in Star Wars: Starfighter.
Gosling is currently one of the best actors working today. He’s been the hunky male romantic lead who makes women swoon in The Notebook and Crazy, Stupid, Love. He’s done the high-octane action hero thing with The Fall Guy, and he led an epic sci-fi drama in Project Hail Mary. Now, he will embark on an epic space fantasy with Star Wars: Starfighter. Once audiences glimpse Gosling’s work in Project Hail Mary, their excitement level for Starfighter will go up exponentially, just as it did for us. We can’t wait to see what he delivers when Starfighter zooms into theaters at lightspeed on May 28, 2027.
Project Hail Mary is now playing in theaters.
- Release Date
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March 20, 2026
- Runtime
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156 Minutes
- Director
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Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
- Writers
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Drew Goddard, Andy Weir
- Producers
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Ryan Gosling, Amy Pascal, Andy Weir, Aditya Sood, Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Rachel O’Connor
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