‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir’s Next Project Is a Sci-Fi Audiobook With a Star-Studded Cast
Project Hail Mary got its physical home release this week, and the movie will surely be returning to the pop culture conversation when awards season rolls around. But in the meantime, Andy Weir, the author behind the story of Ryland Grace and Rocky, has another sci-fi project in the works: Exoplanet, an Audible sci-fi thriller that has his stamp of approval as executive producer.
Weir, who also wrote The Martian, is just one of the big names attached to Exoplanet. It’s written by Benjamin Percy, whose credits include Marvel’s acclaimed audio drama Wolverine: The Long Night. And the cast includes another Marvel veteran, Anthony Mackie, along with The Odyssey‘s John Leguizamo and Oscar winner Ariana DeBose.
“When the starship Wild Blue Yonder is torn apart by a quantum anomaly, each surviving crew member crash-lands in a different era on the same deadly exoplanet—hunted, alone, and running out of time,” reads the official Exoplanet synopsis. “Chief Engineer Jeff Shaw (Anthony Mackie), aided by his virtual assistant (Ray Porter), must battle an unforgiving present, driven by one thing: getting home to his daughter. First Officer Becca Bang (Ariana DeBose) fights to survive a hostile alien past. Science Officer Logan Bowers (John Leguizamo) wakes in a machine-ruled future that shouldn’t exist.
But the anomaly wasn’t random. A relentless alien intelligence is feeding on human technology—and it’s been waiting for them across every timeline. Separated by centuries, the crew must find a way to communicate across time itself before this world consumes them all.”
In a press release, Weir shared his enthusiasm for the story.
“I’m obsessed with problems, the kind where one person and a lot of math are all that stand between survival and disaster. Benjamin Percy’s writing in Exoplanet takes that and adds a twist that genuinely kept me up at night: what if the people trying to save each other were separated not by distance, but by centuries? You can’t see that story. You have to hear it,” he said. “The crackle across a five-hundred-year gap, the desperation in a voice that doesn’t know if anyone’s still listening. Anthony, Ariana, and John don’t just perform it; they make you feel every impossible mile between them.”
Exoplanet will be available from Audible starting November 5; you can find more details and pre-order it here.
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Reporting from Gizmodo contributed to this story.
