My Hopes For Project Hail Mary Are Off The Charts, And The Movie's Runtime Is Adding To That

More often than not, when I hear that a movie has an especially long runtime, I brace myself, if I don't outright cringe. Longer does not always mean better, in my opinion, and the run time of a movie does have at least some impact on whether or not I will see it in the theater. But in the case of the Project Hail Mary movie, which arrives on the 2026 movie schedule in less than two months, either I'm so far beyond optimism about this movie based on how good it looks that the length of it can't make a dent in my anticipation, or I really do think it's a good thing that we're apparently in for a more-than-two-hour ride with this one.

On March 20th, the book-to-screen adaptation of Andy Weir's incredible sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary hits theaters. The film will star Ryan Gosling, and is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Word of the movie's runtime recently made the rounds, with the Project Hail Mary Updates X account reporting that it was confirmed to them that the movie would be 2 hours and 36 minutes. Phil Lord reposted that news, and further clarified that the listed runtime does include credits:

The credits factoring in to the run time does actually make a difference, as the length of credits (particularly for a movie that's likely to have a substantial crew) can vary. For reference, The Martian (another Andy Weir book adaptation) has credits that run for about 8 minutes. So even if we guesstimate and round up to ten minutes for Project Hail Mary's credits, we're still looking at a movie that's more than two hours and twenty minutes.

Why I'm Not Complaining About The Runtime

Well, as I said, I might be too excited about this movie to think clearly at this point. My hopes are set so high that it'll be good, that more really could be better in this case. I'm also factoring in my love for the book. As an avid reader, I'm well aware that adaptations have to make changes to the plot in the process of bringing what's on the page to the screen. The movie (or TV show) is never going to be what we saw in our minds as we read. But I know I'm not alone in feeling the sting of seeing a beloved story and its characters cut down to something far less than what the book told me they were for the sake of time.

Taking the book into account (don't worry, no spoilers here), there's a lot to sort through, between Ryland Grace's thrilling world-saving mission and the events that set him on the path. In fact, after rereading the book, I came to appreciate just how important those earlier events leading up to the mission were for Ryland's character development even more. Understanding who he was before he set off on this mission helped me appreciate better the decisions he makes once he's on it.

All of this is to say, I really hope the lengthy runtime benefits the story and character development as much as it'll presumably benefit some of the more thrilling scenes, because I'm showing up for all of the above. In fact, I hope they make tickets available for pre-order soon, because someone please take my money already.