Rocky, the alien in "Project Hail Mary," was brought to the screen primarily through rod puppetry rather than animatronics. According to James Ortiz, the character's lead puppeteer and voice performer, the original intention had been to use a mechanical version throughout the film. Although impressed by its capabilities, Ortiz considered some of its movement too rigid and proposed a theatrical rod puppet as an alternative. Built around the same design, this version consisted of a hollow shell with handles that could be attached or removed. It allowed the performers to achieve greater fluidity and improvise during filming.
The animatronic nevertheless offered a practical advantage in the spaceship's mental health room, where LED screens displayed Earth imagery, including fireworks and an ocean. Digitally removing the puppeteers and their reflections would have complicated the preservation of the images playing across those screens. Rather than undertake that cleanup, the filmmakers placed the mechanical Rocky inside a real ball on the set, usually supported by a cable that visual effects artists subsequently erased.
This approach was used only a handful of times. Elsewhere, Ortiz and his team generally operated the rod puppet, with their presence carefully removed during postproduction. The distinction was therefore not simply between traditional craftsmanship and advanced machinery: each method served a particular filming need. The puppet supported playful, spontaneous performance, while the animatronic reduced the removal work required around active screens. The film's home-video bonus features briefly show the mechanical system in operation.
