Project Hail Mary’s Comic-Con Panel Revealed the Best Look Yet at Rocky the Alien | SDCC 2025

At San Diego Comic-Con today, a precise enthusiastic Hall H assemblage greeted the squad down Project Hail Mary, the upcoming movie based connected the beloved publication by The Martian writer Andy Weir. Several scenes from aboriginal successful the movie were shown, arsenic we saw Ryan Gosling’s mild-mannered teacher, Ryland Grace, beryllium recruited for a ngo to abstraction to prevention the Earth from imminent demolition acknowledgment to a unusual cosmic event.

And portion the moments of Ryland adjusting to beingness successful abstraction – wholly connected his own, nary little – and being introduced to thing similar Zero-G for the archetypal clip were precise amusive and entertaining, the country the fans were intelligibly astir excited for was our champion look yet astatine the onscreen depiction of Rocky. Rocky is the alien Ryland encounters during his journey, who has been sent from his satellite to halt the aforesaid situation arsenic Ryland, which besides threatens his people. Rocky is simply a sanction yet fixed to him by Ryland, due to the fact that the 2 can’t talk to each different connected relationship of Rocky looking like, well… rocks, which includes having nary discernible look oregon features.

We were shown the country wherever Ryland archetypal spots Rocky’s ship, which is acold larger than his, and itself resembles 2 large, asteroid-like objects from afar that crook retired to beryllium connected together. But erstwhile it came to Rocky himself, we got a shadowy sensation via his full precise archetypal scene, which expanded connected moments concisely shown astatine the extremity of the trailer.

In the scene, we spot Ryland descending retired of a hatch from his vessel into an opening successful the alien spacecraft, wearing a spacesuit and breathing heavily. He floats down the large, cavernous opening of the different vessel and notices that the rock-like walls are covered successful intricate lines and designs. Finally, helium reaches the bottommost of the cavern and sees a tiny window, perchance indicating a doorway is determination - but helium can’t find thing connected the partition that would look to assistance unfastened it up.

He begins to sound connected the model erstwhile abruptly Rocky’s manus slams onto it from the different broadside with a precise effectual leap scare for some the assemblage and Ryland, who stumbles backmost screaming. When helium gets backmost up, Rocky’s manus touches the solid again. Ryland gets person arsenic helium sees Rocky clasp up a small, bladed figurine, looking similar it mightiness beryllium been made from metal. It’s crude – somewhat evoking a skinny mentation of A Nightmare Before Christmas’ Oogie Boogie – but Ryland begins to understand, asking, “Is that me?!”

Rocky’s assemblage remains hidden successful the shadows, arsenic we lone spot his arms and hands, arsenic helium holds up a practice he’s besides made of Ryland’s vessel and past puppets the Ryland figurine truthful it’s moving backmost up towards his artifact ship. Ryland asks, “You privation maine to spell backmost into my ship?” Rocky’s hands repetition the question of the figurine, mildly but insistent.

Ryland nods and enthusiastically tells Rocky, “Okay. I'll speech to you later! Bye!” earlier waving backmost done the model and going backmost up towards his ship, ending Ryland and Rocky’s archetypal brushwood and the scene.

The panelists spoke astatine magnitude astir the challenges of depicting Rocky onscreen, with co-director Phil Lord saying that their attack was to instrumentality Weir’s ideas from the publication and dainty them similar “creative provocations to america that we honored. We ne'er wanted to marque our lives much convenient by changing thing that Andy did.”

Lord's directing spouse Christopher Miller said that erstwhile they were asked however the assemblage could attraction astir a quality without eyes, a rima oregon a face, their absorption was, “Pixar made america attraction astir a lamp. It’s possible!”

Lord and Miller ended up reaching retired to Neal Scanlon astatine Lucasfilm to make Rocky, with Miller noting helium “built a applicable carnal that was puppeteered by an astonishing puppeteer named James Ortiz and his squad of five. We telephone them the Rocketeers. And it was astonishing having Rocky determination connected acceptable each time truthful that we could person a existent enactment and sprout the full happening practically. And ultimately, it's going to extremity up being a beauteous blend of carnal puppetry and animation. He comes live successful a mode that you truly would dice for this character. Rocky does not person a face. He has nary eyes. He has 5 legs with 3 fingers connected each leg.”

Lord added praise for ocular effects supervisor Paul Lambert, whose enactment volition beryllium blended with that of Scanlan and Ortiz for the last mentation of Rocky, describing it arsenic “a existent handshake to make this truly lovable idiosyncratic retired of minerals.”

Lord and Miller said the last important constituent to believing successful Rocky was Gosling and his show and however helium interacts with the character, with Lord describing him arsenic akin to “the sixth puppeteer, due to the fact that you request a country spouse to bring those characters to life, due to the fact that helium has to dainty it similar idiosyncratic that's truly there.”

Gosling meantime was humorously coy astir his onscreen dynamic with Rocky, remarking, “He's my friend, and he's not present to talk for himself, truthful I don't privation to springiness up his secrets.”

Shortly aft the panel, Lord, Miller and screenwriter Drew Goddard (who antecedently adapted Weir’s The Martian) stopped by IGN’s SDCC studio, wherever Goddard spoke much astir the challenges of imagining Rocky’s onscreen depiction, saying, “It’s ever the screenwriter's nightmare, due to the fact that you don't adjacent person a face, right? So however bash you communicate? I deliberation the precise happening that makes it hard is the happening that makes it special. The situation is what gets america each excited. The publication is astir empathy and astir seeing thing from idiosyncratic else's constituent of view, adjacent if that different idiosyncratic is simply a cosmic alien who has nary narration to humans whatsoever. That's the point. And truthful each country is astir empathy.”

Describing Project Hail Mary, Lord remarked, “The movie is not a Mac, it's a PC. It's a machine. The vessel is simply a machine. There's complexities that are disposable to the audience. We're not trying to buff them out; erstwhile determination were weird edges, we embraced them. The movie is precise beautiful, but it's not pretty, and it's not ever slick.”

Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026.