Adapted from Andy Weir's novel, Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a schoolteacher turned astronaut charged with preventing a mysterious organism from destroying Earth's sun. Following the deaths of his fellow crew members, Grace joins forces with Rocky, an alien brought to the screen primarily through puppetry. James Ortiz provided Rocky's voice and led the puppeteers, whose performances were combined with visual effects.
Although the initial intention was to use an animatronic—a mechanically operated model—throughout, Ortiz felt that its occasional stiffness would limit the character's fluidity. He proposed an additional theatrical rod puppet: a hollow version of the same design, fitted with removable handles. This allowed the team to improvise and develop Rocky's playful behaviour, while visual-effects artists subsequently erased the operators. The animatronic nevertheless offered a practical advantage in the spacecraft's mental health room, where LED screens played images of Earth, including fireworks and an ocean. Digitally removing the puppeteers and their reflections could have compromised those moving images. Instead, the mechanical Rocky was placed inside a real ball on set, usually supported by a cable that could be erased afterwards.
The animatronic was used only a handful of times, leaving the rod puppet central to Rocky's performance. Elsewhere in production, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller substantially reshaped the film through editing. An initial assembly lasting almost four hours received harsh reactions before they shortened it. The finished adaptation became a mainstream box-office success.
